The public spectacle of privatization - Wait What?:
The private ownership and control of public entities, programs and services is costing American taxpayers hundreds of billions of dollars a year as a result of waste, corruption and the insertion of the “profit” motive into the provision of public responsibilities.
Privatization, its advocates claimed, would save scarce public money since it promoted more efficient and effective delivery of programs, services and goods. The claim, proven wrong over and over again, was that through privatization of public activities, taxpayers would be able to get more and pay less.
The clarion call from conservatives and neo-liberals alike was that by allowing private entities to own and operate public activities, government would finally be able to run like a business and the once bloated bureaucracies would be transformed into streamlined business units that would ensure faster, better and cheaper delivery of services.
The fruits of greater productively, they pontificated, would be so significant that the business taking over the once public activity would even be able to make a healthy profit.
While the concept worked great in theory, the reality has been quite different.
The track record of modern privatization is littered with numerous examples where taxpayers didn’t get more for less, but ended up with a system in which they paid more and got less.
Today, more than $1.5 trillion a year of public activity has been privatized and a prime The public spectacle of privatization - Wait What?:
