David Dayen, FDL: The Selling of the World: Privatization Schemes Proliferate (ALEC's involvement)

[highplainsdem]

http://news.firedoglake.com/2011/06/26/the-selling-of-the-world-privatization-schemes-proliferate/

The Selling of the World: Privatization Schemes Proliferate
By: David Dayen Sunday June 26, 2011 1:18 pm

One of the more revealing elements of the Greek bailout discussions is not that the IMF and European finance ministers want another round of austerity from Greece before providing funding, and not even that banks are being urged to take haircuts or engage in restructuring to accommodate the Greeks. It’s that other element – privatization of state assets – that is the tell here. This is the real extraction from the Greeks, the real shock doctrine scheme at work here. Greece essentially must sell the family silver – their ports, their state-run water supply systems, their utility company, their telephone company – to get out of the mess created largely by the financial crisis and the Great Recession. This deal was already done back in May, and clearly was the most important piece of the puzzle for Greek creditors.

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Change the country is right; change the world is a better description. Because all over the world, from Spanish airports to California parks, corporate interests are engaged in a full-court press to privatize state assets, to acquire contracts for state services, to take over the business of government and make it unaccountable to the average citizen. And in a shocking number of cases, they have been successful, mainly because cash-strapped cities and states will make deals with the devil in order to stay fiscally solvent and acquire some short-term cash.

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As Matt Stoller writes, the power of the private prison industry perpetuates the war on drugs, draconian immigration policies and other misguided “tough on crime” actions, with little public interest involved. Investors are told about private prisons as social infrastructure, and they are keen to reap its yields. Stoller looks at some prospectuses for CCI and GEO Group, two of the larger private prison corporations. The business model is successful because they create their own market – changing policies to increase the prison population, and then providing the services to manage them.

The American Legislative Exchange Council, or ALEC, is one of the prime conduits between corporations seeking privatization and legislators. They build legislation that conservative lawmakers then replicate in states all over the country. Their Publicopoly fake board game is a road map to how to privatize seven different government sectors: government operations, education, transportation and infrastructure, public safety, environment, health and telecommunications.

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Dayen's right to point out that this is a global problem, with governments and the people they represent being victimized by corporate interests and the individual politicians they've bought.

And he's right about ALEC being a prime conduit for this rapacious privatization.

There have already been a number of posts here, including individual topics, on ALEC's role in helping the private prison industry, and the harm that has resulted -- those are linked to in replies in the long compilation topic on the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC).

But I hope even people who've read those will check out the article Dayen links to by Roosevelt Institute fellow Matt Stoller -- "Who Wants Keep the War on Drugs Going AND Put You in Debtor’s Prison?" -- since he spells out the dangers of this system so clearly:

Welcome to the for-profit prison industry. It’s an industry that wants people in jail, because jail is their product. And they have shareholder expectations to meet.

Privatized prisons are marketed to international investors as “social infrastructure”, and they are part of a wave of privatization washing over the globe. Multi-billion dollar prison companies are upgraded by analysts with antiseptic words like “prospects for global prison growth”, and these companies have built a revolving door and patronage machine characteristic of any government contractor. Only, in this case, the business they are in is putting people into steel cages (or “filling beds” as they put it), and they don’t care how, why, or whether the people in those beds should be there. They don’t care if you’re in prison for smoking pot, stealing cars, or being in debt. They just want people in jail.

Here’s the 2010 10k of the Corrections Corporation of America (PDF), the largest operator of private prisons in the country. It’s a pretty simple business model – more prisoners, more money. Or, as the company writes, “Historically, we have been successful in substantially filling our inventory of available beds and the beds that we have constructed. Filling these available beds would provide substantial growth in revenues, cash flow, and earnings per share.”

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Reduced sentences, good behavior, and fewer arrests are business risks, where a high recidivism rate is a bonus in this schema. And the lobbying and campaign donations flow from the business logic, as this report lays out. These companies want to keep the war on drugs going, want caging of undocumented workers, and want to make sure that good behavior is rewarded with more jail time. And the more like a police state America becomes, the better.

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[anthroman]

1. Its planned this way....

n/t

[highplainsdem]

2. kick

[malaise]

3. MUST READ

K & R