[Mb-civic] The Public Cost of Privatization

[ean at sbcglobal.net]

http://www.commondreams.org/views04/1203-01.htm
Published on Friday, December 3, 2004 by the Boston Globe 
The Public Cost of Privatization 
by Susan Jhirad 
AS BIG DIG holes leak taxpayer dollars by the gallon, as Halliburton 
overbills the Pentagon by millions, as Enron CEOs go to jail for 
defrauding stockholders, and as HMOs provide less and less health 
care for higher and higher fees, it is time to reexamine that great 
myth spawned by the Reagan revolution: the myth of privatization. 
For too long, Republicans have been able to promote, 
unchallenged, the notion that the private sector can deliver goods 
and even public services more efficiently, more cheaply, and better. 
"Privatization" has meant a variety of things: from giving 
corporations taxpayer money with little government oversight, as in 
the Big Dig, to turning public schools into for-profit charters, to 
forcing community colleges like my own to rely less on state funding 
and more on private fund-raising, including raising student fees in 
order to survive. Whatever its form, privatization is based on the 
general concept that business is good, government is bad. 
In the presidential debates, George W. Bush was proud to claim 
(falsely) that Senator John Kerry wanted to impose "another big 
government healthcare program, like in France or Canada." Never 
mind that countries with national health plans like Canada, France, 
and England, wouldn't dream of trading their free universal 
coverage, with all its imperfections, for our system, where millions 
lack any healthcare at all. 
Never mind that Social Security is actually solvent and supporting 
millions of Americans. Since President Bush is now recommending 
that we privatize Social Security, we need to be clear on the 
realities. Although it faces challenges from the baby boomer 
generation, Social Security has always been self-sustaining and has 
actually been tapped as a source of revenue for other government 
programs. 
Never mind that my own community college, even with slashed 
funding, manages to provide a quality education, raise money, and 
stay within budget. Never mind a recent federal study showing that 
in Texas, 98 percent of the public schools met state performance 
standards while only 66 percent of charter schools did. 
"Privatization" is ideology, not fact. 
Consider the Big Dig as a poster child for what happens when "big 
government" steps aside. Years ago, when it was reported that 
Bechtel/Parsons Brinckerhoff both executed and monitored the 
preliminary design of the Big Dig, my alarm bells rang. With little 
interest in reining in costs, the price of the Big Dig escalated by 
billions, creating the greatest overruns in the history of US public 
works. Now we hear that the project itself may be seriously flawed. 
How did this occur? There may be blame enough to go around, but 
let us remember, a series of Republican governors -- Weld, 
Cellucci, and Swift, all firm believers in privatization -- allowed 
Bechtel to run its own show. When two members of the 
Massachusetts Turnpike Authority, Jordan Levy and Christy Mihos, 
protested, Governor Swift moved to fire them. 
In short, the Big Dig is a classic example of private corporations 
abusing public funds for private profit. This occurs all the time with 
military procurement. Yet now, when politicians choose to vote 
against overpriced military equipment or the faulty missile defense 
program, they are branded as antidefense or even unpatriotic. 
We are now facing the largest deficit in our nation's history, in part 
driven by tax cuts, in part by the open-ended war in Iraq. Large 
corporations like Bechtel are grabbing a "piece of the pie" in what 
will be a protracted, expensive task of reconstructing a country we 
are spending billions to bomb. Meanwhile, our president warns that 
Social Security is in trouble, and we need to "reform" it. 
But in all these matters, who will pay and who will profit? Does 
privatization really deliver better goods and services at lower cost, or 
does it just transfer public wealth into private pockets? Are we 
gradually eliminating all public services, replacing them with a 
system of pay-as-you-go benefits that serve only the wealthy? 
Although America is a capitalist country, we have accepted, since 
the New Deal and even before, government's role in reining in 
corporate excess and taking care of the needy. Most Americans 
believe that Social Security, unemployment insurance, Medicare, 
and child labor laws are beneficial, although all were instituted 
against the opposition of big business. Now the Bush administration, 
closely allied with major oil, defense, and drug companies and with 
control of Congress, appears bent on privatizing the entire country. 
We can only wonder, what will happen to us then? 
Susan Jhirad is chairwoman of the English Department at North 
Shore Community College. 
              © Copyright 2004 Globe Newspaper Company.
                                 ###

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