Beware the Invisible Hand of Privatization

[Donnachaidh]

http://www.commondreams.org/view/2011/03/07-12

In California, the state government currently spends more than $34 billion a year paying private contractors to do jobs that civil servants can perform for half the cost. Another $900 million of taxpayer funds is wasted annually propping up the state’s failed enterprise zone program. Common sense dictates that any proposal to balance the state budget begin here.

Instead, what is being implemented in state capitals across the country are plans to eradicate traditional retirement and health care benefits for civil servants and, in some cases, to return civil servants to 19th century working conditions by eliminating their First Amendment right to assemble, organize, and bargain collectively as free citizens.

These developments are part and parcel of an ongoing strategy to steal our taxpayer dollars by redirecting them from public services and democratic institutions and into the pockets of private companies and individuals through wasteful subsidy programs and corrupt private contracting practices in government.

Case in point, the Little Hoover Commission recently recommended that retirement benefits for new and current public employees be essentially eliminated and replaced with 401(k)-style plans in order to save taxpayers money.

More at the link --

[Rex]

1. Yep, it is not a nice hand! Likes to slap people around.

[Blue Owl]

2. Invisible Hand of Privitization Jerks Boehner Into Action

n/t

[damntexdem]

3. You can't see the invisible hand but you can feel it.

It's what's tugging your wallet out of your pocket.

;-)

[mmonk]

4. Yes. A major point I've tried to make.

I've seen it firsthand.

[Warpy]

5. Everything that is held by the commons and sold to the highest bidder

without directly benefiting the commons (and tax cuts to billionaires don't qualify) constitutes theft.

Call it by its proper name.

[Mister Ed]

7. Bidder? What bidder?

All too often, I fear, it's sneaky back-room deals, kickback schemes, and no-bid contracts.

[Warpy]

8. That's how the bidding is done

He who bids the highest in sweetheart deals and kickbacks gets the boodle.

[Lorien]

6. I think it was Choomsky who said "when they say "privatize", what they really mean

is "make it a lot more expensive" ". Something to remind fans of the "invisible hand" of.