AOPA and ATC Privatization

How about examining the real-world experience of pilots in other countries
where ATC services HAVE been privatized?

Want to see what things will be like if/when this administration has its way?
Look to Canada, New Zealand, etc. Without exception, everything I've seen
about privatized ATC services esewhere paints a very, very unpleasant picture.
I see absolutely zero benefits (other than money going into the contractor's
pockets - and that only benefits them, at a cost to everyone else).

Ask pilots who have gone through the privatization process how they have liked
it. Without exception, everyone I've heard from says the same thing: sure,
there might be a few shortcomings in the present system (hey, what system of
ANYTHING is perfect?), but you are much, MUCH better off with the existing
system run by the government. Is there ANYONE (except for the people who have
personally benefitted financially) who have gone through a switch from a
government-run ATC system to a privatized one who think it has improved
things? I haven't heard a single voice supporting that position. On the other
hand, I have heard many, many others who all say the same thing: you Yanks
would be absolutely CRAZY to get rid of the wonderful system you now have and
throw it away in favor of a system whose primary goal is to generate revenue
and keep costs down.

Rather than unrealistic, ideological fantasies (i.e. anything the government
does is always bad, and anything the private sector does is always better) I'd
like to hear what specifically is wrong with the current system, and exactly
how selling it off to the low bidder is going to address that. Absent those
details and a convincing, fact-based analysis showing how a privatized systsm
would benefit us all, this simply looks like nothing more than a good,
old-fashioned money grab to me.

David H
Boeing Field (BFI), Seattle, WA
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