Privatization

Taking private. Something that used to be public (in this case, the term usually refers to something that was run by the government), which is now bought out by investors and taken private. No more government knuckleheads running the show. No more arrogance about wasting tax payers' (or at least other people's) money. And as a private company, the entity can find a compensation system to attract the best and brightest talent to come work for it.

The system has happened in different methods over history in the U.S. and around the world. Airlines were privately run...then they did stupid things and went bankrupt. The U.S. government essentially bought many of them (or funded them back into existence). It regulated them, paid attention to the lousy service they were giving customers, and allowed unions to dominate in a very non-SouthWestian way. (Southwest is famously essentially owned, or was at least funded, by its own union, and the CEO was a union man from the womb...yet Southwest doesn't suffer the same typical "you can't fire me so I really don't care about the quality of service I'm giving you" vibe that most unions broadcast, especially at competitive airlines. The founder simply fired bad workers. What a concept, right? Yeah, we can't really do that anymore.)

Anyway, the government, with no culpability for costs, would allow the hiring of 17 workers to do the job of 7, and ran the airlines very inefficiently. It then suffered enough financial hemmoraging, sold them to private investors and, well, the airline industry today is a reflection of that structure. It is run just well enough to pay interest to bondholders on the debts the airlines carry as private companies. And their stocks look about like a dead man's pulse, albeit with defibrillators every now and then when the economy changes suddenly.

The process? Well, the gov calls out a shout for bids. Investment banks advise private equity shops on what they should spend for what. And then sales happen. New management is brought in. Massive firings usually happen. Big tech upgrades replace more people. And instead of 38,000 employees in a company losing $50 million a month, the company skinnies up to be 14,000 employees in a company making $20 million a month, with a lot more profits to come down the line.

Yeah, Darwin should be alive today to frame things for us.