Creeping Corporatism"Every area of social service has been cut, not because we have a $10 billion deficit but because House Republicans do not believe government SHOULD help people... "Benito Mussolini said, "Fascism should more properly be called corporatism, since it is the merger of state and corporate power"... "What you get when you privatize and outsource is something like the Department of Defense and the military-industrial complex. We spend $399 billion a year on defense, and if you think that money is well spent because much of it gets run through defense contractors, you have not been paying attention. DOD is the happy home of the $700 hammer, the endless cost over-run, and the revolving door, with accompanying conflicts of interest and dubious contracts. It's a fiscal nightmare. The Pentagon once had to announce that it couldn't account for $17 billion. "You get nightmare public policy consequences, as well. What happens if you privatize prisons is that you have a large industry with a vested interest in building ever-more prisons. The result is even more idiocy, like the three-strikes law and long terms for small-time drug possession... "And they [the neoconservatives] believe in all this with a self-righteous certitude that has to be seen to be believed." Excerpts from an article by Molly Ivins in The Texas Observer (6/6/03) |
"...the state legislature passed a bill this past May that will result in the privatization of eligibility determination for TACH (the program that replaced welfare), food stamps and Medicaid -- fundamentally transforming the way social services are delivered in Texas...
"The union is one of the few groups in the state to recognize the daily agony of poverty, to take seriously and lend dignity to the difficult lives of poor people. Meanwhile, the Republican legislature obsessively and repetitively attacks government bureaucracy with the enthusiasm of an anorexic staring in the mirror...
"The privatization bill... collapses the twelve agencies that serve the neediest Texans... HUndreds of local welfare offices across the state that sign people up to receive food stamps, Medicaid, TANF, children's health insurance, disability and other public benefits will close. There will be no more face-to-face interviews... Instead, workers in four statewide call centers will enroll people from all over the state in programs over the phone. These call centers will be privatized. In addition, state mental hospitals and schools for the mentally disabled may now be sold to low bidders...
The main corporate player pushing welfare privatization in Texas is ACS State and Local Solutions...
"ACS maintains a staff of twenty-one lobbyists in Texas alone -- at a cost of $910,000 a year... The company lavishly donates to political campaigns...
"In fact, the welfare system in Texas is one of the stingiest in the country, but even beyond this... assumptions about privatization are problematic. For one thing, there is little proof that privatization really does lower costs or taxpayer expense...
"Public employers have historically been more ethnically and racially diverse than most private companies, and they have played a critical role in the creation of a black middle class. They do not usually fight unionization with the same bitter intensity, and thanks to civil service rules, they provide more rights and greater protections for employees. By contrast, private employers are accountable to no one...
"What's more, increasing the power of management and introducting profit-making considerations into the welfare state has a negative impact on social policy. Public review processes, reporting requirements, adequate staffing --- these can seem like "inefficiencies" to private corporations legally bound to deliver the highest return to investors. Prison privatization in Texas, for example, has been a well-documented disaster... the scandals were legion...
"Bush plans to subcontract hundredds of thousands of federal jobs that are now performed by civil servants. The effect, as in Texas, will be to dole out the public sector to politically connected corporate donors, while attacking one of the few remaining economic sectors where unions still wield substantial power...
"...the justification of privatization is ultimately that CEOs are the only people who can be trusted with social power -- never women...
"... privatization looks even worse on the ground than on paper. Already corporations are asking that their bids for government contracts be kept secret, beyond public scrutiny. It's not hard to see why..." (Kim Phillips-Fein. "Texas, Inc." The Nation, Jan. 5, 2004: 18-23).
"State health commissioners have handed this responsibility primarily to the 24 healthcare and technology experts... the group includes at least seven contractors from private companies... firing 4,500 state eligibility workers (a 57 percent reduction)" (Dave Mann. "Who You Gonna Call?" Texas Observer, 5/21/04: 6-7).
"Uruguayans were bombarded with extortion, threats, and lies: A vote against privatizing water will condemn you to a future of sewage-filled wells and putrid ponds...
"...common sense triumphed...
"...sooner rather than later, in a thirsty world, the reserves of fresh water will be as, or more, coveted than oil reserves. Countries that are poor, but rich in water, must learn to defend themselves...
"In 1992, Uruguay was the only country in the world to put the privatization of public companies to a popular vote: 72 percent opposed. Wouldn't it be democratic to do the same in every country?...
"...Uruguay instituted free public education before England, women's suffrage before France, the eight-hour workday before the United States, and divorce before Spain" (Eduardo Galeano. "Where People Voted Against Fear." Progressive, January, 2005: 18-19).
"..the Bush Administration is so blatant in.. its rush to strip citizens of everything they hold in common" (Phillips, Peter, and Project Censored. Censored 2004: The Top 25 Censored Stories. NY: Seven Stories Press, 2003: 94).
"..the agreement prevents the government from taking actions on behalf of its citizens. Once a private contract has been given to a corporation, it CANNOT be revoked, even if the prices are so high [that] they lead to social unrest and violence" (Phillips, Peter, and Project Censored. Censored 2004: The Top 25 Censored Stories. NY: Seven Stories Press, 2003: 130-131).
"Electricity prices jumped.. by 300 percent and 400 percent virtually overnight... five times the profit allowed by U.S. regulators" (Greg Palast. The Best Democracy Money Can Buy. NY: Plume, 2003: 125).
"Brazil's government privatized Rio Light, selling it... Reliant, the Houston company.. promised improved service for Rio -- then axed 40 percent of the company's workforce... Nearly every day, a new neighborhood went dark" (135).
"The windfall from reduced wages and price increases allowed the foreign owners to hike dividends [profits] by 1,000 percent" (Greg Palast. The Best Democracy Money Can Buy. NY: Plume, 2003: 136).
"Public water was first sold off to corporate operators in England. Prices jumped 250 percent and watering English gardens has, at times, been criminalized...
"..the water privateers marched on Egypts, Indonesia, and Argentina. But when they reached Cochabamba, Bolivia.. the thirsty poor resisted...
"Six died in Bolivia. Another 175 were injured... after the military fired gas and bullets at demonstrators. The victims were opposing the 35 percent hike in water prices.." (177).
"To quell the spreading demonstrations, President Banzer announced cancellation of the water privatization on April 5, 2000...
"World Bank director Wolfensohn has a solution to the lack of water: raise its price" (180).
"..nearly one thousand executives and bureaucrats gathered in The Hague in March 2000 to review and refine a program to privatize the world's water systems.
"..these private operators.. can only turn a profit if prices rise radically and rapidly.." (Greg Palast. The Best Democracy Money Can Buy. NY: Plume, 2003: 181).
Please send comments to: Colby Glass, MLIS