Privatization of State Industry in Germany

I had a chuckle when I heard my friend @dwinblood say "The State does not like to give back [industry he once claimed]". In Germany we had a massive wave of privatization a few decades ago: Our Railroad, Telecommunication, Electricity and Postal service has been state-owned industry up until the mid 90s.

The result of that was a rampant rise of ticket prices for the train, a lack of innovation and no improvement of service. Tons of Phone scams - I am heading out to my grandparents to cancel a fraudulent Vodafone contract today... And last but not least we got one of the highest electricity prices in the world.

I do think free markets are nice and all, but the sale of state industry has never been a truly free market in the first place and there is some basic infrastructure that should not be gambled with like communication and supply of electricity.

I actually can't tell you too much about the details of the Privatization in Germany, I was still very young when it happened and it is not a topic that is broadly discussed in the media. I can't even say that "it has all been better in the old days", but I can tell you right now it sucks! The privatization of German infrastructure has not solved shit and a lot of problems we see , like phone scams by your own phone company, is something I accredit to the crony cut throat market that was established.

Pictures are from wiki commons