The whole system is basically designed to make local and state government the heel. Having all utility work handled through the state with an organized workforce of full time engineers would make everything not only simpler, but cheaper and result in higher wages for any engineers involved.
No one ever sees that though, and just thinks that total deregulation would mean that the private company they work for would pay them more and not just fire them and give up on engineering.
I remember the M4A study the Mercatus people did that mistakenly proved it would save money. The most remarkable thing to me was the overhead costs to run the program, I think it was only 2% of all expenses.
The whole system is basically designed to make local and state government the heel. Having all utility work handled through the state with an organized workforce of full time engineers would make everything not only simpler, but cheaper and result in higher wages for any engineers involved.
No one ever sees that though, and just thinks that total deregulation would mean that the private company they work for would pay them more and not just fire them and give up on engineering.
I remember the M4A study the Mercatus people did that mistakenly proved it would save money. The most remarkable thing to me was the overhead costs to run the program, I think it was only 2% of all expenses.