For example, experience in the United States, where public and private enterprises supplied electricity contemporaneously, has consistently shown that public enterprises can provide a reliable service at lower cost to ratepayers. Similarly, in Britain and France, municipal governments offer water services at cheaper rates than privately operated services.

Private owners are concerned more about a return on their investment than the welfare of consumers. They have a strong incentive to achieve ''efficiencies'' because they need to make profits. These profits must be delivered despite paying more to borrow money than governments, as well as having to cover marketing and lobbying costs, political donations, higher executive salaries and shareholder dividends. However, efficiencies inevitably come at the expense of service reliability and quality as they involve cutting and/or casualising workforces; reducing worker training; skimping on infrastructure maintenance and investment; and neglecting services for remote customers and those less able to pay.

As a result of electricity privatisation and deregulation, there have been blackouts, price spikes, price manipulation, bankruptcies and electricity shortages around the world. Privatisation and deregulation have seen the goal of reliable, affordable, universal electric service replaced by the goal of economic efficiency and the rhetoric of competition and consumer choice.

Water privatisation has also been a disaster. Rates have soared and pollution has increased. Those who cannot afford the new rates have had their supply disconnected. Diseases such as cholera have made a comeback in poorer nations, where alternative sources of water are contaminated. Privatisation has transformed water from a human right to an ''economic good'' that must be paid for by those who use it.

Planning and long-term forecasting of demand, as well as the upgrading of worn-out infrastructure, used to be an essential part of providing a reliable public service. The need for long-term planning and co-ordination were major reasons governments in many countries took control of services such as water, telecommunications, transport and water in the first half of the 19th century. Following privatisation, the planning function of government bureaucracies was abandoned altogether and surrendered to market forces.