Can any think of an instance when privatizing or deregulating something benefited the public?

[BainsBane]

28. I actually can

In Brazil, the state controlled industry so tightly it let in few imports. That policy (Import Substitution Industrialization) was useful for a few decades because it allowed Brazil's economy to industrialize. By the nineties, however. it resulted in an economy where goods were very expensive, wages low, and a manufacturing elite reaped enormous profits. That state controlled economy was not at all left-wing, as one might assume. In fact those policies were maintained throughout two decades of right-wing dictatorship. Opening up Brazilian markets to imported goods actually helped consumers, Brazil's middle class. It was not enough to increase the middle class. That would come in the 2000s under Lula, but it was part of that process.

One example of the insanity was the state controlled telephone system. There were so few phone lines, you had to wait years and pay a fortune to buy a line. You couldn't call the phone company and have service set up. People ended up renting phone lines from people who owned them. It was very expensive and subject to all kinds of abuse. As soon as cell phones became available, Brazilians quickly purchased them and freed themselves from having to lease phones from individuals, so cell phones were widespread there before they were in the US.