Privatization of Public Services Works Poorly

Michigan prisons recently were the subject of a report by Bill Moyers. The first paragraph sums up the problem with privatizing any public service.

Advocates of privatizing public services promise that the magic of the free market will result in better services for fewer tax dollars, but time and again those ideological claims run headlong into reality. Private companies have to turn a profit, and that means cutting corners, paying lower wages and often failing to provide quality goods and services.

Read more.

Sold to the Poor for the Benefit of the Elite

Diane Ravitch - One of Our Best Friends

If you have not read her books, Reign of Error: The Hoax of the Privatization Movement and the Danger to America's Public Schools and The Death and Life of The Great American School System: How Testing and Choice Are Undermining Education, or read her blog do yourself a favor. She always has new content several times a day. It is always relevant and powerful. Over the past several years Diane has made several hundred posts a month. If you are looking for thoughtful critiques of Common Core or teacher evaluations or privatization or any other hot issue in education you will find it here.

Mike Green is ALEC

Mike Green is my state senator. He is also the Michigan state chairman of the American Legislative Exchange Council. This group and Americans for Prosperity are front groups for David and Charles Koch. These groups exist to foist their priorities and their values on the rest of us.

Links

Public Pensions Do Not Threaten State or Local Budgets - See here
Recall Rick Snyder for Michigan - See here
Recall Governor Rick Snyder - See here
Michigan Rally Information - See here
Michael Moore on Twitter - See here
6,000 people at the anti-Snyder rally March 16, 2011 - See here
We have seen what opponents of public education have been doing. - See here
The plan to privatize education in Wisconsin is coming to Michigan. - See here

We're Getting Organized

We're Getting Organized by Jason Roseboom.

A World Without Unions - LINK

So sad, so true.

Un-American Extremists

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Corporate Control

Our corporate masters have done well.

They provide only the most nutritious and ecologically sound food at low cost, they maintain the air and water without supervision from pesky government bureaucrats, they make their money the old fashioned way, they earn it by crashing the economy and foreclosing on the suckers who used to have jobs, they run the coal mines with a safety record second to none, their honor and valor exceeds that of the troops they work beside overseas, they promote the finest American ideas of democracy and individual rights unlike those evil communists we defeated who thought power should be concentrated in the hands of a few and everyone else must be poor to be equal. We are the shining light of freedom, democracy, peace, brotherly love and ecologically friendly light bulbs made in China. What we have here folks is a corporate utopia. In Michigan they are about to get the authority to take power from elected officials and rule at the pleasure of the governor.

Benjamin Barber, "Privatization is not about limiting government; it is about terminating democracy."

Brit theToady

On O'Rielly tonight Brit Hume said that if the Republicans back down and compromise on the budget bill in Wisconsin that this will give a black eye to the cause. He did not say, the Republican cause, but the cause. Can you imagine Huntley, Brinkley, Cronkite, Jennings, Brokaw, Chancellor, Rather or any of the broadcasters who took journalism seriously, so closely identifying themselves with this kind of political issue.

Their biggest mistake, in my opinion, is their conceit. They are so sure they are right and that their opponents are weak and powerless that they are going to do and say the most outrageous things. Our country will continue to be tortured, but they will continue to go too far due to their hubris and this will be their undoing.

Causes and Culprits

From Common Dreams...

Energized by the images of Wisconsinites night after winter night —and filling the state Capitol with chants of “What’s disgusting? Union busting!”—unions across the country are beginning to outline clear and uncompromising agendas for defending public services and the rights of public workers.

One of the strongest statements has come from Rose Ann DeMoro, executive director of National Nurses United, who explained “what all working families should know:”

1. Who caused the economic crisis? Banks, Wall Street speculators, mortgage lenders, global corporations shifting jobs from the U.S. overseas.
2. Who is profiting in the recession? Corporate profits, 3rd quarter of 2010, were $1.6 trillion, 28 percent higher than the year before, the biggest one-year jump in history. Meanwhile, average wages and total wages have fallen for all incomes, except the wealthiest Americans whose income grew five-fold.
3. Who is not paying their fair share? In U.S. states facing a budget shortfall, revenues from corporate taxes have declined $2.5 billion in the last year. In Wisconsin, two-thirds of corporations pay no taxes, and the share of state revenue from corporate taxes has fallen by half since 1981. Nationally, according to a General Accountability Study out today, 72 percent of all foreign corporations and about 57 percent of U.S. companies doing business in the United States paid no federal income taxes for at least one year between 1998 and 2005.
4. Are public employees overpaid? State workers typically earn 11 percent less, local public workers 12 percent less than private employees with comparable education and experience. Nationally, cutting the federal payroll in half would reduce spending by less than 3 percent.
5. Would pay and benefit concessions by public employees stop the demands?The right has made it clear it wants A- cuts in public pay, pensions, and health benefits, followed by B- restricting collective bargaining for public sector workers, followed by C- prohibiting public sector unions.
6. Will the right be troubled if cuts in working standards make it harder to recruit teachers and other public servants? No. Take public teachers, many of whom have accepted wage freezes and other cuts in recent years. Many in the right have a fairly open goal of privatizing education, and destabilizing public schools serves this purpose. The right also salutes the shredding of government workforce, part of its overall goal to gut all government service and make it harder to crack down on corporate abuses or implement other public protections and services.
7. Will the right stop at curbing public workers rights? Employers across the U.S. are demanding major concessions from private sector workers, and breaking unions. Rightwing governors and state legislators are seeking new laws to restrict union rights for all private and public employees.
8. Does everyone have a stake in this fight? Yes. It’s an old axiom that the rise in living standards for the middle class in the 1950s was the direct result of a record rate of unionization in America. It is of course unions that won the eight-hour day, weekends off, and many other standards all Americans take for granted that are now often threatened with the three-decade-long attack on unions spurred by that rightwing icon Ronald Reagan. The corollary is that increased wages and guaranteed pensions put money into the economy, with a ripple effect that creates jobs and spurs the economy for all.

Mr. Rogers

The Courage to Teach a Senator.
This reminds me of Frank McCourt in Teacher Man.

100,000 Rally in Wisconsin...

...and thousands in state capitols across the country.

Shame

The Republicans are wrong on so many levels it staggers the imagination. Public employees making on average ~$50,000 a year are accused of being fat cats. Wall Street drove the economy into the ground and not a single person has been prosecuted. The Bush tax cuts have been in effect for over ten years and deregulation is the Republican gospel. If this is such powerful medicine for the economy, where are the jobs? Robert Reich is right; tax the rich. The more you make the higher your tax rate should be. The rich will still be rich and everyone will benefit.

The moves in several states to eliminate collective bargaining rights have nothing to do with economics and everything to do with politics and 2012. They want to eliminate the political clout of unions and take the Senate and the country.

Scott Walker in the fake call with "David Koch" said that he would agree to meet with the Democratic Senators who left the state to prevent a vote on the union-busting bill. Talking implies good faith communication. In this unguarded conversation he said the only purpose for the meeting would be to get the Senators to come back from Illinois so the state senate could vote and pass his bill unchanged. No negotiation, no compromise, no real talk, just the power of the majority to have its way.

Early in the wee hours of this morning the Wisconsin state house Republicans called a vote and passed the legislation without even enough time for all the Democrats to vote and then left the chamber.

What Do Teachers Make

Tell Us What You Really Think

This is a Wisconsin Badger!

Running the Show

• Corporations are sitting on 2 trillion dollars and not hiring.
• Our leaders cut taxes for the rich by 800 billion.

The pump seems to be primed (according to Republican economic philosophy).

• Cut funding for home heating oil for the poor and make seniors pay taxes on their pensions.
• Eliminate collective bargaining rights for public employees.

Who is running this show?

Legitimacy?

Wisconsin voters protesting the effort to abolish their collective bargaining rights.







The Brooks Brothers riot in 2000.

Republican congressional operatives flown in from Washington D.C. to thwart Florida state law and stop the recount of votes in the presidential election.

Norma Rae

A point is reached from which there is no going back.

Solidarity Forever

We praise it in Poland, Egypt and elsewhere.