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Has privatizing ever worked out in the favor of the general public?
Also, I still feel like republicans are an existential threat. We should treat them as such, and not like "oh well it's just a difference of opinion and if they vote to kill me I guess that's fine."
Depends on your definition. To a very large extent so much of the government is. Your city government isn't developing their own OS or fabricating their own metal parts.
Less pedantically I think you mean "has there been a role that was traditionally done by civil servants that was handed over to private sector and things got better as a whole?". It is a good question the only thing I can think of is some local government maintenance stuff is done that way. My city for example and our neighbor has the same night contractor for emergency repairs. I have worked with them a few times and they do alright, most of them are semi-retired.
Nope. Never.
Healthcare? Probably not. Privitization got us to it current CPU and GPUs though. Price gouging aside, they are quite the spectacle of tech.
So something I've been wondering about lately, on one hand capitalism coincides with most modern advancements, but is that a case of cause or just a case of happening to be around at the same time? Especially when capitalism is being propped up by a lot of what is essentially targeted socialism these days.
Marx once thought that capitalism was needed for industrialization before transitioning to the next stage of human development (socialism), but I think he changed his opinion later.
I personally think there would be much more innovation in a more socialist society with UBI or UBS (universal basic services) because people should generally have more time to get educated and work on risky ideas instead of working on assembly lines for 60+ hours/week just to take care of their families.
You are only wondering that because you don't spend all day dealing with government contracts. It is night and day how slow government can be to adapt. I will name my next ulcer "government". Work so fucking hard on some of them just trying to inch them forward I want to cry. And no it is not just the US. It is freaken everywhere.
I personally think the free market works best and is best when it is has strict boundaries to play in.
When I came to my employer we made effectively every penny from government contracts. I was one of the people brought on so we could expand into private sector. That was right when the virus happened. In 3 years our private sector stuff hardly even resembles the government stuff internally, same basic functionality. One is advancing and the other is stuck in the early 90s.
Never stop asking those questions.
Was there a point where computer hardware was nationalized? A quick search made it look like it was never a government run monopoly. It was universities and then private