Why do we still use the term public service?

Friday 20 July 2012

Dr Faysal Mikdadi was spot on in his letter G4S is a private company whose priority is profit (M Star July 16).

That goes for all the so-called service industries. Take transport for example. Why do we still refer to this as "public" transport when most is run by private companies whose main priority is to maximise their profits by selling travel as a product?

The "service" aspect does not, in reality, enter into it.

They will cut and cut as much as they can to shore up their profits, unless heavily subsidised from the public purse.

This is how the capitalist system operates - private profit overrides all else and the minority stealing the wealth created by the majority.

Here is a nursery rhyme from the 1600s which shows that nothing much has changed:

They hang the man and flog the woman,

who steals the goose from off the common.

But let the greater criminal loose,

who steals the common from the goose.

They say we must atone,

when we take things we do not own.

But leave the Lords and Ladies fine

when they take things that are yours and mine.