An Empowered World (People come up with ingenious ways to run things better than governments can)

Tech Central Station ^ | Apr 21, 2003 | Eamonn Butler

[Diddley]

Poor villages in Thailand have found a great way to improve their lives and make a little money. They generate electricity using micro-hydroelectric equipment, and then sell on any surplus to neighbouring settlements. Instead of waiting for the state-sponsored electricity grid to get to them, they're doing it themselves.

Scotland has found a winning formula for keeping its rivers unpolluted and full of wild salmon. Rather than rely on public ownership and government clean-up schemes, fishing rights are bought and sold. So the owners have a powerful incentive to make sure that streams are kept clean and well-stocked.

Want to cut traffic congestion? Simple. Make motorists pay to use the road at peak periods. Then those who can avoid the peaks will do so, more people will ride on public transport, and cash will be generated for environmental improvements, as cities such as London, Oslo, Singapore and many more are finding out.

Entrepreneurs in Southern Africa have some up with an effective way of saving endangered species such as elephant and rhino. Charge rich tourists to shoot them. Then, instead of the locals wanting to get rid of them as dangerous pests, they become a source of value to everyone - and are thriving as a result.

The connection?
In countries rich and poor around the globe, people are coming up with all sorts of ingenious ways to run things better than governments can. Choice, competition, and individual enterprise can deliver things quicker, better, and cheaper than state bureaucracies.

And that even goes for essential services that many people just assume have to be delivered by government.

[Diddley]

Individual enterprise can deliver things quicker, better, and cheaper than state bureaucracies.

And that even goes for essential services that many people just assume have to be delivered by government (including such things as prisons, traffic, schools, etc.).

We've known this all along.