[blind-democracy] FW: Popular Resistance Newsletter - Privatizers versus People
- From: "Bob Hachey" <bhachey@xxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: <blind-democracy@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Wed, 01 Mar 2017 03:59:03 -0500
From: PopularResistance.org
[mailto:info=popularresistance.org@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of ;
PopularResistance.org
Sent: Sunday, February 26, 2017 10:04 AM
To: bhachey@xxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: Popular Resistance Newsletter - Privatizers versus People
A snapshot of the future: You drive your kids to school, go to work, the
hospital or a movie and you are charged for every mile of road you use through
an EZ Pass.
This newsletter is also available
on the web
<http://popularresistance.us2.list-manage.com/track/click?u=33602bebba8fb7dd6e71fb413&id=5810eca612&e=e5b1868e14>
here.
Image removed by sender.
A snapshot from the future: You drive your kids to school, go to work, the
hospital or a movie and you are charged for every mile of road you use through
an EZ Pass. The road has been developed and maintained by a bond funded by
wealthy investors at very high interest rates. The investors are the first on
the list to be paid, since the city needs to keep a strong bond rating in order
to borrow more from investors.
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Image removed by sender. EZ Pass Only
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Bruce Dixon, editor of
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Black Agenda Report, writes, in “
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EZ Pass — Tip Of The Road Privatization Vacuum Cleaner,” that trade
associations and lobby groups are working toward ‘pay-to-use’ roads in the near
future. Roads will be privatized or become public-private partnerships. If we
are unable to pay, we cannot use the roads or may even lose our license. Dixon
points out that under the Obama administration toll lanes were allowed on more
existing highways to advance toward privatized roads.
This is the essence of privatization today: turn a public good into a profit
center for Wall Street. US economic policy has created a wealth class that is
grotesquely wealthy and under-taxed so it has the money that the government
needs to provide public services. This forces the government to borrow money
from or sell a public service to the privateers or to create a public-private
partnership (disguised corporate welfare and crony capitalism) in order to
provide essential services.
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Image removed by sender. Health Over Profit for Everyone
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This model was applied during the Obama years on a mega-level to health care.
Rather than treating universal health care as
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a public service and expanding and improving Medicare to cover everyone, Obama
worked with corrupt healthcare profiteers – the insurance and pharmaceutical
industries and health care investors – for a law that benefited them. We
described Obamacare as “
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the biggest insurance scam in history” in 2013, predicting it would lead to
increased premiums, out-of-pocket costs and deductibles and decreased coverage
while making the medical industry wealthy – this is exactly what happened.
The Market Rules While Public Services Are Cut
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Image removed by sender. Stop TPP, TiSA and TTIP protest Earth Rising
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Under Obama and previous presidents, the market was king while public services
were diminished or disappeared. Obama is infamous for his triad of trade
agreements: the
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Trans-Pacific Partnership, the
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Trans-Atlantic Trade and Investment Partnership and the
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Trade in Services Agreement. The common theme of all three was privatization
by granting greater power to corporations, making it impossible to regulate
them, and turning public services into profit centers for big business.
The TPP and TTIP both seem to be dead. It is unclear what the fate of TiSA will
be under President Trump, but
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we must not allow it to be completed. Last week Trump said he wants no more
multi-country trade deals and will pursue one-on-one negotiations where the US
can demand terms from a smaller country and easily walk away if the country
refuses.
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Image removed by sender. by Annette Dubois
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TiSA is a grave danger. It is an agreement of 52 nations (including all of
Europe) and from
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numerous
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leaks we
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know the thrust of TiSA is privatization of all services. Services are 80
percent of the US economy and include the postal service, education, health
care, etc. TiSA creates a one-way street to privatization with incentives to
push public services to be privatized. Once this is done,they cannot return to
the public sphere. Recent leaks show that
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TiSA negotiators are having problems, but if they make compromises, TiSA may
still survive.
A major area in the US where we have seen privatization destroying a critical
public service under the last four presidents is education. The damage is
expected to increase under the
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extremist policies of Secretary
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DeVos, although
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she is igniting protest (see
<http://popularresistance.us2.list-manage1.com/track/click?u=33602bebba8fb7dd6e71fb413&id=fb7cdf4db4&e=e5b1868e14>
here and
<http://popularresistance.us2.list-manage.com/track/click?u=33602bebba8fb7dd6e71fb413&id=b7c6f180aa&e=e5b1868e14>
here).
Education activist, Morna McDermott, writes about the path to privatize
education in “
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The Long Game: Where Art Thou Public Education?”. She points to the extremist
“Choices in Education Act,” which would open the flood gates of privatization
schemes like vouchers and charters, but she also points out that the Democrat’s
answer to No Child Left Behind, The Every Student Succeeds Act (
<http://popularresistance.us2.list-manage.com/track/click?u=33602bebba8fb7dd6e71fb413&id=ad5f64dcdb&e=e5b1868e14>
ESSA), does the same.
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Image removed by sender. Government of the lesser of two evils
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Education
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‘deform’ is rooted in the lesser-evilism of the two-party problem of the
United States. While both parties clothe their deforms in nice-sounding labels,
the reality is that both parties are privatizing education so big profits can
be made off of school budgets while students suffer from a deteriorating
education system. The privatizers can afford the best Madison Avenue
propagandists available, but in reality words like ‘
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education choice’ have never served the disadvantaged but play on people’s
desperation and have
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racist roots.
In Baltimore, we may be seeing the end of public education through the
starvation of public schools. The
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public schools currently have a $130 million shortfall, which is likely to
mean firing 1,000 educators. Not only will this devastate Baltimore schools, it
will undermine the Baltimore economy. When you starve a public budget, people
get desperate, including parents, teachers, students and residents; desperation
is an opportunity for privatizers to come in and “save the day,” a disguise for
the privatization, profiteering and destruction of public education. Adding to
the concerns is that Baltimore “School Choice” advocate Jason Botel is now the
second in command under DeVos. Will Baltimore be an experiment for full
privatization of public schools?
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Image removed by sender. Immigrant rights activists protested the Gates
Foundation for their support of notorious private prison company GEO Group.
(Photo: Alex Garland via Presente.org)
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This week the
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Trump administration moved backward on the issue of private prisons. Obama had
taken initial steps to stop the use of private prisons, but Attorney General
Sessions withdrew his order. Private prisons treat inmates poorly, whether it
is the quality of food or health care, and require high levels of occupancy,
which encourages more prison sentences.
Another problem with privatization is lack of accountability. Corporations
often skirt regulations because they know that there aren’t enough regulators
to enforce the rules and that even if they are caught, they only have to pay a
fine. Their lobbyists work to weaken or stop regulations to protect the
environment, workers or consumers because they interfere with their profits.
Trump’s cabinet consists of
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people appointed to federal agencies that they have been critical of or want
to see destroyed. And regulations are being repealed, which will lead to
expensive environmental and other types of damage.
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Image removed by sender. No DAPL Protect the Water
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The Trump administration has moved forward on the Dakota Access Pipeline and
the Keystone Pipeline without environmental reviews. If one pipeline explodes
or has a significant leak, the cost in damage to water, land and air will be
massive. Cutting corners for profit will almost assuredly cost the government
more money in the future.
The bottom line on privatization is well described in
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an article on public-private partnerships by Pete Dolack. He points out we can
expect to see a lot more public-private partnerships under Trump, especially
for his infrastructure plans. This is just another form of crony capitalism
which will result in public money going to the wealthiest investors. Trump will
cut taxes on the wealthiest and build infrastructure with private dollars,
meaning profit as well as tax credits go to investors, not the public. Dolack
writes:
“The contractor, of course, expects a profit from the arrangement. The
government doesn’t — and thus corporate expectation of profits requires that
revenues be increased and expenses must be cut. Less services and fewer
employees means more profit for the contractor, and because the contractor is a
private enterprise there’s no longer public accountability.
“Public-private partnerships are nothing more than a variation on
straightforward schemes to sell off public assets below cost, with working
people having to pay more for reduced quality of service.”
What Is the Alternative?
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Image removed by sender. Privatization-Equals-Corruption1
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There are alternatives to privatization, de-regulation and other policies that
funnel tax dollars and profits to the wealthy. Author
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John Boik urges us to look at how we create “an economy of meaning,” which
begins with a rarely asked question: What economic system designs, out of all
conceivable ones, might be among the best at helping us meet real needs? This
question expands our thinking and creativity about the economy. It is not
limited to a capitalism vs. socialism. It is not just about creating jobs, but
about creating jobs people want to do. By making well-being central to the
economy, new approaches will be tried and, if they work, expanded. The current
economy does not work for most people. As we re-think the economy, the
centrality of well-being is a good foundation.
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Image removed by sender. Privatization of water protest
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In a chapter for the book “
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Moving Beyond Capitalism“,
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we suggested the commons as the antidote to predatory capitalism. Concentrated
wealth is derived by taking from the commons for personal gain in an
undemocratic way. Public goods, lands and services are part of the commons that
we should be sharing. Doing so would reverse the wealth divide and build our
mutual prosperity, e.g. all should have equity in healthcare, access to the
Internet and high quality education. Further, organizing and governing the
commons requires group decision-making, which will help to reinvent democracy.
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Image removed by sender. Commons not Capitalism
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These are times of radical change. We are in the midst of an evolution. The
old world is one of concentrated economic power that creates inequality and
corrupt, hierarchical governance to serve concentrated wealth through
exploitation of people and planet. There is another way. We’ve reached a
tipping point, as evidenced by the worldwide revolt through Occupy, the Arab
Spring, the Indignados and other movements.
We can reverse the trend toward privatization and inequality by claiming the
commons for our mutual prosperity. We can build a more just, sustainable and
democratic world, a world based on the common good, in which people work
together to solve common problems and create an equitable economy that betters
the lives for all.
NOTE: Popular Resistance is able to provide movement news and resources because
of the support of our readers. If you are able, please donate so that we can
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