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<p><font face="Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif">Exactly right.
Government has a legal monopoly on coercion, ranging from the
death penalty to collection of taxes and enforcement of the
barking dog ordinance in Fairfax County, Virginia. Contractors
do a lot of government work (in the United States, contractors
outnumber direct-hire government employees by a ratio of 2.5:1)
but their firms are or should be tagged office=company while the
government offices where they may perform their duties should be
tagged office=government.</font></p>
<p><font face="Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif">I supervised a computer
shop for two years. One-third of my subordinates were
direct-hire government employees. Two-thirds worked for a
private company with a government contract. They shared offices
and were virtually interchangeable. The corporate headquarters
was separate, and in my mind would have been tagged
office=company. My government office building (the South
Agriculture Building, largest government office building in the
District of Columbia at the time) would have been tagged
office=ministry since USDA is a Cabinet department=ministry.</font></p>
<p><font face="Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif">The bus company in
Ashgabat is state-owned. I have tagged its depot as a bus
depot, not as a government office. Function to me also plays a
role.</font></p>
<p><font face="Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif">apm</font><br>
</p>
<br>
<div class="moz-cite-prefix">On 11/4/2018 8:42 PM, Colin Smale
wrote:<br>
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<p>The activity of a prison is on behalf of a government, pursuant
to a statutory duty of the government to administer justice.
That its operation is outsourced to a private company doesn't
change that fact. You can't just start your own prison - it is a
state monopoly.</p>
<p>Public transport may be a state monopoly, but sometimes it
isn't. In the middle you have state regulation, which is the
status in much of the UK. Anyone can start a bus company, but
you need to register the route at least. (I think it might be a
bit more complicated than that...) Providing free transport,
well, I suppose anyone can make it free if they want, but the
money has to come from somewhere...</p>
<p><br>
</p>
<p>On 2018-11-04 15:41, Martin Koppenhoefer wrote:</p>
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<div id="AppleMailSignature" dir="ltr">sent from a phone</div>
<div dir="ltr"><br>
On 4. Nov 2018, at 10:19, Allan Mustard <<a
href="mailto:allan@mustard.net" moz-do-not-send="true">allan@mustard.net</a>>
wrote:<br>
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<p><span style="font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif;">If
it is a budget-dependent company/corporation, such as
the Commodity Credit Corporation of the U.S. government,
which generates no revenue of its own and relies wholly
on appropriations from the U.S. Congress, yes, it should
be tagged government. As Deep Throat said, "Follow the
money!"</span></p>
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<div>I find this difficult, because it implies we define what is
original government duty and what is not. Providing beer is
apparently not a government job (any more?), providing
healthcare might be (?), what about transportation? Is free
public transportation a government duty? They surely wouldn't
generate (at least direct) profits, and if the service isn't
free it could still be financed by the government and not be
profitable. Similarly the providing of energy, water, the
treatment of waste. Europeans tend to see prisons as
government sites, in the US prisons are often private.</div>
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<div>Ciao, Martin </div>
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