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How do private businesses hurt our country like the left wing say?

I was in the car, coming home from golfing; my neighbor was giving me a ride home, and mentioned the construction going on my street and complained about how long it was taking. He asked if i knew why, and i said no. He answered by saying that they fixed the water main, but they had to wait for the water company to inspect it which takes weeks on end. I made a remark which seemed to get to him. I just said "There's state government for you" he retorts by saying something to the effect of "no, its not the state..its the private businesses that are...................." he went on, but i was getting out of the car, not wanting to get into an argument with my good friends dad. I have no idea how private businesses would make this small street project take longer. free market encourages competition, which drives prices down. give me your feedback..im more conservative than liberal im a strong believer in a free market economy, and 100% opposed to expanding government.

Public Comments

1. I have no problem with private business unless they become monopolistic like they do when they take on public jobs then tax payers almost always pay more
2. Private Interprise hurts the country badly, because the country has shown by voting in the liberals that it wants a government that will take care of us, under all circumstances. Nothing else is important to us, individual freedom and reward for hard work least of all. Private business encourages the exact opposite: independence, providing useful services under open competition, freedom to control our own lives, freedom of expression, and self-reliance. A disastrous element in our new society.
3. The major way private businesses hurt the nation is their penchant for sending American's jobs overseas to gain bigger profits by paying foreign workers far less in wages without any benefits.
4. Private enterprise alone does not hurt business by itself. When it sends jobs overseas rather than giving them to Americans, it does. Outsourcing is horrible for America.
5. I don't know who your listening to when they say private businesses hurt the country, and claim to be left of center. Progressive do not like large corporations! Not small businesses... There has been too much consolidation of wealth and power by large multinational corporations at the expense of small businesses all over the world. Just look at what Wal-mart has done to small towns! The so called free market that you choose to praise and believe in is nothing more than a control and domination cloak used by corporations to control the market by deregulation to their advantage by pulling the strings of their conservative puppet politicians. Wake up man!
6. So you think this guy represents everyone on the Left? I think the problem is with you. There is nothing to suggest people on the Left actually believe that.
7. I'm more conservative but its not a private or public problem, it is a national problem of dam lazyness. When I lived in Algeria it takes 3 hours to fix a street. It takes 3 days to fill a pot hole in this country and 1 week to fix a street. You know why? When construction workers get paid by the hour and have little supervision there is an incentive to be corrupt and go to tim hortons when you should be working. I have seen this as I live in a community that has huge construction going on. I see workers just sitting around and only work when the supervisor arrives. If a private company is being paid by government, they can run up any cost they want, and you the tax payer pays for it, so its just another way to get money from the tax payers. Don't be so focues on doctrine, some services cannot be delivered effectively from the private market as they have too low profits like utilies such as stop lights and lamp post and elctricity and water or insurance. Look at cities like Lagos Nigeria who have privatized water, they have a higher cost of living than NYC.
8. The water and pipe making company and the construction company have together produced a less efficient situaito because market economics bases trust on incentive. Ie trust does not exist without an incentive to do something trustworthy. The construction company has not incentive to fix the pipe properly it costs them money and gains them nothing and its not their problem if it goes wrong in the future. The water company gets the wrap if the water goes wrong. So the water company makes the builders stop their work to make sure that they are doing everything right instead of cutting corners. So the market offers two solutions which the state could improve on a) faulty pipes or b) slow mending of pipes.# Another reason your neighbour might be angry is the disruption that private enterprises often cause. Which they have no direct money incentive to stop doing. These are externalities:like pollution. So they can cause noise pollution and traffic jams from digging up roads without any direct costs incurred to the builders. This situation might never improve. For example if water suppliers own their pipes competition might dictate streets are always bine dug up or gas or cable layers. Furthermore water suppliers can have somewhat of a monopoly. People dont alway want their streets dug up and especially if they cant tell the quality of pipes A) from B). So its hard for them to choose whose pipes are best because it is technical and because they are burried underground this is imperfect information. So the water company might supply substandard pipes. Or at the least because of the gravity of deciding to get a new pipe company in- take a long time to repair or inspect possible damage. There are lots of different situations where this happens. And there are number of injustices and problems which some people argue(sometimes righly and sometimes wrongly) that a state government could do better.