privatization

FEDEX PLUNDERING AND THE PIECEMEAL PRIVATIZATION OF THE U.S. POSTAL SERVICE
Global Revolution 1: American Revolution 2: Day 62: Communication 1
IronBoltBruce's Kleptocracy Chronicles for 17 Nov 2011 (g1a2d0062c1)
How many examples of greed and corruption must you see before you act?

The massive amounts of money America’s rich spend to keep from paying taxes seems as irrational as it is obsessively ideological. There’s something creepily cultish about it. This week’s massive leak of corporate-written model legislation from the Koch brothers-financed American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) has further exposed the depth and breadth of the corporate capture of what was once billed as government of, by, and for the people.

New study on privatization claims it simply does not work, and documents it. In fact, privatization sucks.

Here are some impacts the Cornell University Hebdon Report found that result from privatization:

-diminished quality and access to services

-lower employee morale, productivity and training

-worker exploitation through lower wages and benefits

-increased discrimination against minorities and women

-loss of government control and sovereignty

-lost constitutional and other legal rights

-decreased efficiency as a result of difficulty monitoring and administrating contracts

-loss of accountability and control

lost infrastructure

-increased corruption, bribery, kickbacks, bid-rigging, campaign donations, low-ball bids, and contractor bankruptcy

-higher direct costs or hidden costs to pay for the loss of pensions and benefits of public employees

-increased conflict, strikes, grievances, and arbitrations

With the election over, it’s time to move on to new things, and the folks at the Campaign for America’s Future have asked me to do some writing about Social Security, which sounds like some big fun, so here we are.

We’re going to start with some reasonably simple stuff today, just to get your feet wet; by the time we get a few stories down the road there will be some complicated economic analysis to work through—but let’s begin today by looking a bit south.

Those who support privatizing Social Security in this country often point to Chile as an example we could follow, and that seems like a good place to get the conversation going...so set your personal WayBack Machine to Santiago, May, 1981, and let’s see what we can learn.

As our state and local governments struggle with recession-generated revenue problems, there is a strong temptation to make up those shortfalls through the liquidation of assets (sell off) into the private sector, or the privatization of (historically) government functions and programs which facilitates the "thinning of the ranks" of government employees.

Unfortunately, these planning sessions are almost always short-sighted, and fail to reference the reams of data that demonstrate the long-term costs of such moves, not to mention the waves of regret that are felt by (other) states and municipalities that have gone down this road. The lure of the pawnshop is strong, but our elected officials need to keep their eyes focused on the horizon and drive on by.

Courts today are seeing an epidemic of bankruptcies among older adults, a direct result of eight years of Republican profligacy and disdain for the middle class. Richard Burr and Virginia Foxx think "the cure" is to keep on doing what George Bush did.

The average age for filing bankruptcy has increased, and the rate of bankruptcy filings among those ages sixty-five and older has more than doubled since 1991. The implications of a sharp rise in the proportion of older Americans in bankruptcy are particularly problematic because, unlike their younger counterparts, older Americans typically have fewer years left in the full-time workforce. Consequently, they will have a far more difficult time recovering from financial collapse.

When did it become acceptable for Americans to allow

Torture? Yesterday, after congress failed to override a presidential veto of a bill outlwaing "Torture". The president referred to "Torture" as a valuable tool in America's ability to fight terrorism. Now it is absolutely our national policy.

Rendition; Where was the outrage?

When we all learned about the Secret prisons, where we took people to be tortured and that our President and Vice President had approved them; Why was our President not impeached?

The Moyock-based mercenary firm Blackwater USA has had a bad week. First, its employees shot into a crowd of Iraqis on Sunday, killing at least 11 people. A preliminary report by the Iraqi government states that "the murder of citizens in cold blood in the Nisour area by Blackwater is considered a terrorist action against civilians just like any other terrorist operations."

Now Blackwater is being investigated for shipping illegal weapons into Iraq. Today the News and Observer reported that

Two former Blackwater employees have pleaded guilty in Greenville to weapons charges and are cooperating with federal officials investigating Blackwater, based in the tiny town of Moyock in North Carolina's northeastern corner.