Forum Post: The Privatization Trap
Posted 12 years ago on Feb. 6, 2012, 9:37 a.m. EST by GildasSapiens
(266)
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"From schools to prisons, outsourcing government's works typically ends with cronyism, waste and unaccountability"
http://www.salon.com/2012/02/05/the_privatization_trap/
The 1% have rigged, & continue to rig, the entire global economy to enrich & empower themselves at the expense of the 99%. It's a ruthless Class War, & unless we fight back hard, & win, we & our descendants will live in serfdom or even slavery!
Remember, the government is made of people, human beings. It is not a business. The argument for privatization of everything from our roads to our schools is a specious one.
Here's a good quote from the article that sums up the problems of privatization:
"...the logic of markets creates private-sector coalitions capable of extracting just as much from taxpayers as the state."
And, I would argue, even more.
"...the logic of markets creates private-sector coalitions capable of extracting just as much from taxpayers as the state."
The words 'or more' would have been appropriate.
Agreed. Read my last sentence. I added "even more."
What I get for trying to read with teens in the house...be glad when they all leave again. LOL, being grandma is fine short term, a month is getting up there. LOL
LOL! Nice to be on the same page with you.
Thank you, let's hope the page gets crowded.
We're working on it.
Public unions are a form of art. It's sad that nobody see's the art that we have created in our public government.
Why must the Federal Government have all the fun? Why not throw a few bones to the right-wing and let them have some highly profitable non-competitive industry's?
To name a few ...
1.) The Courts 2.) The Police 3.) The Prisons 4.) Voting 5.) Education 6.) Public Parks
That's just a short list, but courts are mandatory, and the Government should have a monopoly on making the law.
Let us have 1-6 above and we'll give you the rest? Ok is that fair?
No prisons should be privatized. At no point in our justice system should privatization occur. They have a hideous track record. They cost more and the public pays for their inadequacy. Justice should not be for sale. Ever.
ALEC.
The privatization of the education system is also a hideous mistake. All of the data says that while a few are good the rest are dismal failures.
Just what we need to see ( NOT ) a prison for profit system. Talk about wide spread abuse possibility's.
There is a history of it. There are a phenomenal amount of lawsuits that we the people have to pay for. They are often understaffed and under-trained. People have a tendency to think that if the prison is privatized that they wash their hands of it. It is actually faux privatization. The people still pay for everything and then pay in lawsuits. It is literally a loophole for basic rights to be ignored.
We really need to keep up the pressure to reclaim our government. So much abuse so little time.
I agree.
I agree 100%.
If the government incarcerates, the government should handle the whole 9 yards. If the costs are too high, it would be time to adjust the laws.
Same with the military.
Same with schools.
They allow for no recourse. http://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/11pdf/10-1104.pdf
I wasn't thinking of it earlier but the military should not be privatized in any way shape or form. You are absolutely right. I do not understand why we must regress to 14th century mercenary for hire shams.
This is where atrocities can happen. Private Security has no business in war zones taking the place of properly trained and supervised military units. This is how things go out of control and multiple abuses happen.
Merc's and Militias under corporate control is a very bad idea. Talk about supporting the growth of private armies. Worse private armies with a corrupt control.
Agreed!!!
It's not just the mercenaries, it's corporations like Halliburton too.
It's always amazed me, that there was no out cry when they became a Middle East based corporation.
I don't understand it either. It's the corporations that hire mercenaries, too.
On that note, isn't BART a corporation that hired mercenaries or formed their own police department?
This country has moved so far in the wrong direction.
I agree with you on this. Privatization is fruitful when the goals of the society aligns with the goals of the corporation. With prisons, that does not happen, at all. They are in fact diametrically opposite. Not sure whose half brained idea that is.
Well, we have to mark this day on the calender. We agree on something. :D
haha..yeah i guess
"They cost more and the public pays for their inadequacy."
Even if it did cost less to do so, no part of our justice system should be privatized.
Absolutely. But the myth of them costing less is exactly how it is sold to the general public.
Indeed.
@ 'GildasS' : Thanx for your excellent and cautionary forum-post, further to which, I post the following :
a) "Occupying Corporations: How to Cut Corporate Power", by Bill Quigley : http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article30457.htm ;
b) "Arundhati Roy : 'The people who created the crisis will NOT be the ones that come up with a solution' - The prize-winning author of 'The God of Small Things' talks about why she is drawn to the Occupy movement and the need to reclaim language and meaning", by Arun Gupta : http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article29884.htm ;
c) "Money Has Been Privatised By Stealth : The greatest privatisation in history has gone unnoticed. It's time to take from the banks the power to produce money", by Ben Dyson : http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article29728.htm ;
d) "Looting With The Lights On : We keep hearing England's riots weren't political – but looters know that their elites have been committing daylight robbery", by Naomi Klein : http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article28868.htm ;
e) "The American Dream : The American Dream is a 30 minute animated film that shows you how you’ve been scammed by the most basic elements of the government system.", by 'The Provocateur Network' ; http://topdocumentaryfilms.com/american-dream/ .
veritas vos liberabit ...
Communists nationalize and fascists privatize. Once the powerful coporations gain control of the ability to write the laws, regulations, trade agreements and declare war. They next seek to become the govt itself. If successful, the corporation dictates govt policy and then enforces those policies. as a front for the govt itself.
The tree of liberty is absolutely under significant siege today from a gathering storm. Call it it Euro-socialism, democratic-socialism, Marxism, liberalism, even progressive conservatism or simply the policies of the Obama administration partnered with an ever-expansive government in Washington, in the end the storm has one name: utopianism. “Utopianism is not new...“ It has been repackaged countless times—since Plato and before. It is as old as tyranny itself. In democracies, its practitioners legislate without end. In America, law is piled upon law in contravention and contradiction of the governing law—the Constitution.” What I see coming from ows and the so called leftist intelligentsia who proclaim anarcho syndicalism or liberal socialism is utterly astonishing. America needs to rediscover the CONSTITUTION....What you proclaim is utter lunacy!
Spoken like a True Randian Misanthrope, obsessed with 'Freedom To' (buy, consume, talk shit etc.!) And NO thought in head or feeling in heart of 'Freedom From' (Hunger, Ignorance, Sickness etc.)
ad iudicium ...
you got that right.
"cronyism, waste and unaccountability"
A perfect description of Government.
Class war is being waged by Obama,the Democrats and OWS.
You really are propagandized and woefully misinformed.
headlesscross is an appropriate handle - brainless as well!
salon.com a left wing news organization. Analyze the above, a class war because of privitization? you contradict yourself by saying it ends with cronyism, isn't that government doling out money to private firms of its choice? So its really government that is the problem. And don't forget public sector unions they aren' much better. our descendents will live in serfdom or even slavery, based on what? who believes this rubbish?
You are right it is a two way street; the politicians give a faction of the people more money than the rest and in return the faction ensures that they get reelected. I suggest, through the tax schedule, we, the people, make it impossible for a faction of the people to buy the political process. or we could keep arguing over whether the cup is half empty or half full. You blame the gov't, I blame the one percent. But they are playing us both. Maybe if a faction of the people did not have so much disposable income they would not be able to buy the political process.
Blame us for what? Just because you can't get a job?
We are the government and are the majority employer in this country.
Without the Government everyone would be out of work.
If Romney and the Mormons can give their first 15% to the Church, then the US public can surely give their first 90% to our Government. It's right and smart.
I got a job you twit. And my comment was about taxes. I blame you for not paying your fair share. And only reason Romney can pay his church so much is because he is a welsher when it comes to paying his share of the taxes. And if you think the people can give their first 90 percent to taxes, you are just as bad as politicians in Washington; you are disconnected from the people and their plight.
even though we don't agree, its nice to communicate with a rational liberal
Same to you, buddy. LOL :) And I am a progressive if you have to label me. Remember, we are the ones on the left with set of testicles.
:) i guess that would make me a conserva--gressive -- the ones on the right with two sets of testicles.
So you despise left wing news organisation just because they're left wing; you despise unions, which have always been the best hope of working people (i.e. the 99%) for decent wages, working conditions & political influence; & you blame government, instead of blaming the 1% who've obviously hijacked the government & perverted it, & the entire economy, for their enrichment & empowerment. Whose side are you on? Not the 99%, clearly!
Indentured labor (i.e. debt slavery), forced labor, tied workers, hopeless underclasses, horrendous employment & working conditions, & other forms of serfdom & slavery are common in developing countries, where the 1% love to do business.
For the last 30 years, the 1% have been systematically demolishing all the laws & institutions that protect American, British & other Western workers from 3rd. world (/19th. century) conditions - if they're not stopped, they WILL reintroduce & normalize those conditions in the West.
When someone uses the word 'obviously' it raises a flag. It means that what they are about to say is not obvious. i don't despise unions private sector unions i do. public sector unions with bargaining powers aren't fair as the unions use my tax money to pay off and support the Democrat who then give the Unions what they want. I also don't like moving our production and manufacturing to the communist Chinese and i buy American as much as i can, even when it cost more. I don't despise salon.com, but i am aware that it is biased and take what it says accordingly. the 1% and 99% is a simple minded economic model that doesn't relfect reality at all. The american economy is much more complex than that.
So you're saying that Occupy Wall Street, & the entire global Occupy movement, is a farce based on a simple-minded fallacy?
And you reject the idea that the 1% have hijacked & perverted the American (&, increasingly, the British & European) political system & government for their own gain, despite overwhelming evidence.
Do you even know what website you're on? If so, why are you here? You'd probably be more comfortable on a GOP website forum.
You summed it up nicely. But people are like cows (including me of course) they like to graze in the same direction, i'm just trying to bring up a different point of view.