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It does seem to be the miracle of public utilities over private ones though. I don't know if anyone involved in this was even claiming a socialist angle.

There seem to be some socialists who are taking up the charge to expand this program but the original victory is all just public ownership. Rock bottom energy generation prices being passed on directly to the consumer instead of being sold to the highest bidder, amazing.

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Publicly-owned is socialism. It's the workers owning the means of production.

I mean sure but then every mixed economy is going to have an identity crisis. You can advocate for public ownership of certain industries and still be a capitalist because that's the reality of it. In all public the economy collapses, in all private the economy collapses. You need both because the public side is how you survive the bust.

So roads are also socialism?

Privatisation of utilities has been fairly disastrous in the UK. I understand what you're saying but they're natural monopolies who have limited scope for innovation. They literally aren't really any different to roads or 'sidewalks'.

Probably the safest industry to put in the hands of the state, if you're going to do it.

Publically maintained ones? Yes. Socialism can be good, it turns out.

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