Resource alarmists are always far better (read: more extreme) at predicting unrestrained exploitation of consumers if natural resources like water are permitted to be privately owned?and doled out via market decisions?than actual market players are in creating workable exploitation opportunities.
In this Newsweek article of 10/08/10, author Jeneen Interlandi describes the horrific outcome of monopoly (private) ownership of the world’s water supply, anchoring her arguments by referencing the James Bond film Quantum of Solace. It sounds like she’s proposing that we seriously worry about a world water supply in the hands of a madman, aka a Monopolist. In her doomsday description, all monopolists are basically Dr. Evil without the sight gags.
Next, it’s clear that the author doesn’t understand cartel or monopoly attempts in practice. There are only two ways for monopoly to persist over time: 1) government can prohibit competition with the monopolist or become the monopolist itself, or 2) consumers can patronize just one firm by free choice, themselves creating the competitive monopoly. Only the governmental version can be exploitative. The competitive monopolist, who has no legal protection from rival suppliers, must face the market every day and try to stave off competition by keeping alternatives from becoming attractive, or rivals from springing up. That’s both a socially and economically happy solution. But it is also a vulnerable one. As for cartels, they are devilishly hard to create in the free market, and fall apart without government enforcement, for the same competitive reasons.
So when the author quotes a James Olson, attorney specializing in water rights as saying:
?Markets don?t care about the environment,? ?And they don?t care about human rights. They care about profit,? she is correct. The social value stream of market distribution and supply arises because of the economic value stream: markets are impartial, efficient, and nonjudgmental, cutting out all possibility of monopoly exploitation by government, and maximizing the likelihood of a fresh, clean water supply on into the future.
