The Hidden History of the Privatization of Everything

[seabeckind]

18. Since the cut taxes mantra of the trickledowners

there's been a concerted effort to sell off much of the inherent value in the services in our society (like water and electricity) to private concerns for a one-time jolt in funding and then lease the service back from that private concern. Usually the payment made is a fraction of the actual value.

Tho not done as much at the federal level, due to the types of functions, it's rampant in the cities and states. In fact, some cities have even faced bankruptcy because of it.

Here's an older piece:

The Privatization Backlash

The city had leased its 36,000 meters to a private Morgan Stanley-led consortium in exchange for $1.2 billion in up-front revenue. The length of the lease: 75 years.

If the meter situation seemed like a bad deal for Chicago's parkers, it would soon become clear that it was an even worse one for the city's taxpayers.

An inspector general's report found that the deal was worth at least $974 million more than the city had gotten for it. Not only would the city never have a chance to recoup that money or reap new meter revenue for three-quarters of a century, clauses buried in the contract required it to reimburse the company for lost meter revenue. The city was billed for allowing construction of new parking garages, for handing out disabled parking placards, for closing the streets for festivals. The current bill stands at $61 million

http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2014/04/city-state-governments-privatization-contracting-backlash/361016/