the decline of the public good

[xchrom]

http://www.nationofchange.org/decline-public-good-1325858730

Meryl Streep’s eery rein­car­na­tion of Mar­garet Thatcher in “The Iron Lady” brings to mind Thatcher’s most fa­mous quip, “there is no such thing as ‘so­ci­ety.’” None of the dwin­dling herd of Re­pub­li­can can­di­dates has quoted her yet but they might as well con­sid­er­ing their un­remit­ting bash­ing of every­thing pub­lic.

What de­fines a so­ci­ety is a set of mu­tual ben­e­fits and du­ties em­bod­ied most vis­i­bly in pub­lic in­sti­tu­tions — pub­lic schools, pub­lic li­braries, pub­lic trans­porta­tion, pub­lic hos­pi­tals, pub­lic parks, pub­lic mu­se­ums, pub­lic recre­ation, pub­lic uni­ver­si­ties, and so on.

Pub­lic in­sti­tu­tions are sup­ported by all tax­pay­ers, and are avail­able to all. If the tax sys­tem is pro­gres­sive, those who bet­ter off (and who, pre­sum­ably, have ben­e­fit­ted from many of these same pub­lic in­sti­tu­tions) help pay for every­one else.

“Pri­vati­ize” means pay-for-it-your­self. The prac­ti­cal con­se­quence of this in an econ­omy whose wealth and in­come are now more con­cen­trated than any time in 90 years is to make high-qual­ity pub­lic goods avail­able to fewer and fewer.

[pscot]

1. The Randian universe

is a cold and lonely place.