8 Ways Privatization Has Brought Pain and Misery to American Life

[xchrom]

http://www.alternet.org/hard-times-usa/8-ways-privatization-has-brought-pain-and-misery-american-life



***SNIP

Health Care

Our private health care system is by far the most expensive system in the developed world. Forty-two percent of sick Americans skipped doctor's visits and/or medication purchases in 2011 because of excessive costs. The price of common surgeries is anywhere from three to ten times higher in the U.S. than in Great Britain, Canada, France, or Germany. Some of the documented tales: a $15,000 charge for lab tests for which a Medicare patient would have paid a few hundred dollars; an $8,000 special stress test for which Medicare would have paid $554; and a $60,000 gall bladder operation, which was covered for $2,000 under a private policy.

***SNIP


Water

A Citigroup economist gushed, "Water as an asset class will, in my view, become eventually the single most important physical-commodity based asset class, dwarfing oil, copper, agricultural commodities and precious metals."


***SNIP

Internet, TV, and Phone

It seems the whole world is leaving us behind on the Internet. According to the OECD, South Korea has Internet speeds up to 200 times faster than the average speed in the U.S., at about half the cost. Customers are charged about $30 a month in Hong Kong or Korea or parts of Europe for much faster service than in the U.S., while triple-play packages in other countries go for about half of our Comcast or AT&T charges.

***SNIP

Transportation

As Republicans continue to deride public transportation as 'socialist' and 'Soviet-style,' China surges ahead with a plan to create the world's most advanced high-speed rail transport network. Government-run high-speed rail systems have been successful in numerous other countries, and England and Brazil both lament industry privatization.

[B Calm]

1. Socialism scares the shit out of republicans.

[madokie]

2. For 7 mbps

of which I rarely ever see. Our Internet cost us $59.95 a month but since the telephone company makes us have to have a land line in order to have internet that adds another $19.95 to our bill. We only use the land line when someone calls us using it. Some how the telephone company, Fairpoint, gets by with stopping any one else other than cable or satelite from offering internet service here. Satelite is too expensive and cable sucks. Google has a data center two miles down the road from me here and they have free high speed internet in the town 10 miles from us but offer nothing to our town.
My wifes grand mother was the original owner of the telephone company here back in the late '40s through the late '50s when she sold it to the family who later sold it to fairpoint.

[Fire Walk With Me]

3. K&R!

[marmar]

4. k/r

[progressoid]

5. Rec!