Quote Originally Posted by Loki View Post
The company tries to make profit. But since all of them are trying to make a profit, they have to find a way to attract buyers. That means either lower cost, a better product, or some combination of the two.
RB mentioned not-for-profit schools popping up in the UK. Here we haven't seen so much in the way of lower costs (for taxpayers) or better results, rather the opposite. Hence my skepticism.

And yet your do-gooder approach is producing terrible results in said areas. Meanwhile, there have been several cases of privately run school in the same areas getting astounding results. Looks like people actually respond to incentives. Who knew.
You must not be paying attention. I was specifically referring to Sweden's disappointing experiences with trying to get "astounding results" by privatizing the school and some areas of the healthcare system. Dread keeps mentioning Sweden as a positive example when it comes to schools so I just assumed everyone knew that Sweden has been trying this for years now and that it hasn't been as amazing as everyone hoped after accounting for selection bias etc. You make it sound like incentives are magic when we all know that successfully incentivising various aspects of learning and teaching isn't easy or simple. Or has there been some sort of sea change in this area of research in the past year?