Privatization: Looting the public purse
Libertarian ideology favors privatization.
Most privatizations, such as those that have occurred in France and UK during the neoliberal era, and in Greece today and Ukraine tomorrow, are lootings of public assets by politically-connected private interests.
The privatization of prisons in the US is an example of the extraordinary cost and injustice of privatization.
Privatization of prisons requires ever higher rates of incarceration in order to build profitability. The US, supposedly “a land of liberty” has by far the highest incarceration rates of all countries. The “free” US has not only the highest percentage of its population in prison but also the highest absolute number. “Authoritarian” China with four times the US population has fewer citizens in prison.
Another great libertarian fantasy is Wall Street. In the libertarian mythology Wall Street is the mother of entrepreneurs and of the start-up companies that blossom into industrial, manufacturing, and commercial giants. In actual fact, Wall Street is the mother of enormous corruption.
All US financial markets are rigged for the benefit of a few. We have had the exposure of high frequency trading front-running buy and sell orders. We have had the exposure of the big banks rigging the LIBOR interest rate and the London gold price fix. We have had the exposure of the Federal Reserve rigging via its dependent bullion banks the price of gold in the futures market. We have had the exposure in Congressional hearings of the rigging of metal and commodity prices. The dollar’s exchange value is rigged. And so forth. Yet no heads have rolled.
So there you have it. The United States government is so overwhelmingly corrupt that even the financial regulatory agencies have been corrupted by the money of the private capitalists they are supposed to regulate.
America the corrupted.
Full story: Privatization: Looting the public purse
Papantonio: Trayvon’s Murder By ALEC
ALEC is an acronym for American Legislative Exchange Council, an ultraconservative organization preserving white supremacy.
Mike Papantonio provides a good overview of ALEC and its activities.
http://www.presstv.ir/detail/2014/04/17/358887/privatization-looting-the-public-purse/
1. PRISONS FOR PROFIT: A special report;Jail Business Shows Its Weaknesses
Excerpts on Privitizing the Prisons
Repeatedly, prison and Administration officials say, the companies have negotiated lucrative contracts in which the businesses involved have been able to recover their financing costs unusually fast and shift huge medical expenses for inmates to the Government.
2. Insiders Tell All: Both the Stock Market and the SEC Are Rigged
3. Prison Reform Movement
