This should be the metric by which we determine what is public and what is private - public being government-run, we all own it collectively, and private being privately owned, it's owned by capitalists, essentially.

The things that are the collective commons - the air we all breathe, the water we all drink, things like that that - that stuff is clearly the function of government - protecting our air, our water, our roads, things like that.

But then there's a second category where there's a little more of a gray area, at least in the United States, at least by our definitions, and that is what are called natural monopolies. Natural monopolies are if you think of your home - how many power cables come into your house? Just one. How many water lines come into your house? Just one. How many septic lines leave your house? Just one. How many cable lines carrying the internet and cable television are coming into your house? Odds are it's just one.

So in each one of those cases those are places where the government should do one of two things: either they should regulate those things as if they were utilities so that the cost is low and the product is widely available, because it is on the edge of being the Commons - it's a natural monopoly so it is naturally anti-competitive and capitalism only works in a competitive environment. You don't have a competitive environment if you've only got one water line or one power line coming into your house. That's number one.

And number two, if the government doesn't regulate it to function as a utility, then the government should simply provide it.

-Thom

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