In former times, the most important service providers were the postal service, the railway and the municipial utility. They were all state-owned. Today, they are privatized. And they can now go bankrupt. In that case, the state has to save them (make them state-owned again) and continue to operate them.
Today, there are totally innovative service providerss. We have come to love them: google – and its competition – with email and calendar, search machines, geo services like maps or other useful things like Youtube and Flickr. We have Skype, Facebook and Twitter. And much more that makes life more agreeable.
All these services are provided privately. The providers do not offer their services for philanthropic reasons. Instead, the first thing they want to do is make a profit. Many of them do not even sit in Germany.
What if they go bankrupt and no longer provide their services? Well, it could happen, couldn’t it?
There are also some useful systems like wikipedia and many Open Source products. Many helpers working on a strictly honorary basis in non-profit-organizations are responsible for those.
What will happen if highly qualified people are no longer willing to work voluntarily and for free? And what if there are no longer any donations? Well, it is not a totally unrealistic scenario.
First and foremost:
Life goes on …
Except totally different things will then again be more important …
On the other hand, some of those services are rather valuable, aren’t they. Will the state or the community of states have to interfere and keep them alive? Is there a risk insurance?
These are all just questions – to make you thoughtful!
RMD
(Translated by EG)
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