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Saturday, April 14, 2012

Don’t Drink the Water | Dissident Voice

Don’t Drink the Water | Dissident Voice:
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Don’t Drink the Water

One of the biggest con games going on right now is the sustained attack on the U.S. public school system.  It’s being orchestrated by predatory entrepreneurs (disguised as “concerned citizens” and “education reformers”) hoping to persuade the parents of school-age children that the only way their kids are going to get a decent education is by paying for something that they can already get for free.  You might say it’s the same marketing campaign that launched the bottled water phenomenon.
The profit impulse fueling this drive is understandable.  All it takes is a cursory look at the economic landscape to see why these speculators are drooling at the prospect of privatizing education.  Millions of students pulling up stakes, bailing out of the public school system, and enrolling in private or charter schools?  Are you kidding?  Just think of the money that would generate.
Mind you, these “education reformers” are the same people who want to privatize the world—the same people who want to add more toll roads, who want hikers to pay trail fees, who want city parks and public beaches to charge admission.  Indeed, they’re members of the same tribe who convinced a thirsty nation to voluntarily pay for drinking water that it was heretofore getting for free.
Let’s revisit for a moment that bottled water craze—that stunning marketing bonanza that made beverage companies wealthy and added a billion non-biodegradable plastic bottles to our landfills and oceans.  For the