N5 – Module 1
Although very little was done to care for the workforce in previous centuries, today governments recognise the enormous positive spill-over effects and in most cases they provide a level of free health care. South Africa loses thousands of economically productive people each year to heart disease alone. Often governments will embark upon an advertising campaign to promote a healthy lifestyle in order to prevent this. The best course of action would be to provide free medical health to all – primary/preventative, secondary and tertiary in order to secure a healthy and productive workforce. One of the problems here is that it is very expensive.
Did you Know? The Mad Hatter depicted in Alice in Wonderland was a grim reflection of environmental diseases in the workplace. The term “mad hatter” dates from the 19th century, when felt hat makers showed effects of mercury poisoning resulting from their exposure to mercury salts during the production process.
Privatisation of Government Services
This is what is known as a thorny issue. One can easily see how people take sides when one has an understanding of their ideology. Should someone or a government be more socialist inclined, they will want to nationalise; but if a government leans more towards a modern, democratic and capitalist society, it will probably seek privatisation of national assets. It might seem logical that many citizens might want to nationalise industries, such as the gold mines. “Why should one company and a few people own all these assets?” some people argue. “Nationalise and let the people benefit,” they might say. The same is true for airlines, telephone services, electricity supply services, etc.
However, what happens in reality is that when government employees run such a service or industry it almost always becomes inefficient and wasteful. There is little incentive or reason to provide an efficient service to the public because there is a monopoly (make sure you understand the meaning of this word), and also it does not matter if the industry does not make a profit. See the block on the next page for more explanation.
Monopoly When a person or enterprise is the only supplier of a particular product or service, there exists a monopoly. Tus they control certain aspects of the market.
When a government continues in this way and the services decline (get worse) they find they have to pump in more and more money to keep the industry afloat and this usually happens just when the tax-base (the source of income) declines because the country is earning less and less. In South Africa we have had nationalised industries such as the ones mentioned above for many years, and in most cases they have been inefficient. Haydam (1993:215) says that privatisation “refers to the transfer of government assets or functions to the private sector.”
Privatise To change (an industry or a business, for example) from governmental or public ownership or control to private enterprise.
16
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68 |
Page 69 |
Page 70 |
Page 71 |
Page 72 |
Page 73 |
Page 74 |
Page 75 |
Page 76 |
Page 77 |
Page 78 |
Page 79 |
Page 80 |
Page 81 |
Page 82 |
Page 83 |
Page 84 |
Page 85 |
Page 86 |
Page 87 |
Page 88 |
Page 89 |
Page 90 |
Page 91 |
Page 92 |
Page 93 |
Page 94 |
Page 95 |
Page 96 |
Page 97 |
Page 98 |
Page 99 |
Page 100 |
Page 101 |
Page 102 |
Page 103 |
Page 104 |
Page 105 |
Page 106 |
Page 107 |
Page 108 |
Page 109 |
Page 110 |
Page 111 |
Page 112 |
Page 113 |
Page 114 |
Page 115 |
Page 116 |
Page 117 |
Page 118 |
Page 119 |
Page 120 |
Page 121 |
Page 122 |
Page 123 |
Page 124 |
Page 125 |
Page 126 |
Page 127 |
Page 128 |
Page 129 |
Page 130 |
Page 131 |
Page 132 |
Page 133 |
Page 134 |
Page 135 |
Page 136 |
Page 137 |
Page 138 |
Page 139 |
Page 140