Privatization

I believe it was Herman Goering (sp?) who said something to the effect of "when I hear the word culture I reach for my pistol." That is precisely the way I feel when I hear the word privatization. When you hear anyone talk about privatization you should immediately check to see if your wallet is safe, because it is going to cost you money. We have somehow been sold on this ridiculous idea that the private sector can do things better than the government. So now we have allowed corporations to take over virtually all aspects of our lives - for profit. The idea of the public good has simply disappeared from our lives. So oil and gas has been privatized and California has suffered immeasurabley. Pharmaceuticals have been privatized and it is obvious what they are doing to us. Health care, likewise. In the Bush/Cheney administration even things like air and water quality are being privatized, along with national parks, the military, and just about everything else. Even the food industry has been privatized so we are at the mercy of gigantic corporations who are determined to feed us genetically modified crops whether we want them or not. Transportation is also privatized and they are doing everything they can to privatize education. Perhaps the most egregious example of privatization has to do with prisons. If you have private prisons that exist to make a profit what does that mean? It means you have to keep the prisons full in order for the profit to be realized. That, in turn, means you have to make sure you have enough lawbreakers to fill the prisons. And that, in its turn, means you have to have laws that will insure enough lawbreakers as, for example, absurd laws about marihuana possession. If, for example, we were to exonerate prisoners who are incarcerated for marihuana infractions, even minor ones, the prisons would no doubt fail to produce enough profit and would then inevitably have to revert back to government control (governments, conveniently, do not have to produce profits). We are told repeatedly, daily, that privatization is good. In fact, privatization is good only if you are a corporation that is going to benefit from it. From a human point of view privatization (capitalism) is absolutely terrible. Do you really want your access to clean air and water controlled by corporations who are in it for profit? Your health care? Well, think about it. That's what you have. And of course socialism is a truly bad word here in "the greatest country on earth." Universal health care is socialism we are told every time the subject comes up. So fine, I say, let's have it as soon as possible. There is a really fine book on the subject of privatization, The Fox is in the Henhouse, by Kahn and Minnich. I highly recommend it.

Need I really comment on the absurdity of absurdities: Bush has now ordered that everyone in his administration has to have a mandatory refresher course in ethics. Closing the barn door after the horse has gone. It's not as if anyone in his administration had any ethics to begin with - if they had they wouldn't be in his administration. Oh, I forgot, Karl Rove, that paragon of ethical behavior is still in charge of the White House. I can sleep easier now.