For the past year or so, I've been thinking about the Great Laissez-Faire Capitalist Experiment that's been going on around the world since the late 1970s. I was a big pusher of the Experiment myself, for many years. I fully believed all the claims: "Prices will go down because of competition, quality of everything will go up, people will become so much more prosperous, everything will be so! much! better!"

You still hear these claims, every time a Capitalist Experimenter wants to privatize yet one more thing. Your phone costs will go down! Cable costs will go down! Energy costs will go down! Competition will Cure! Everything! Woo! 

But...has it actually happened?