Privatization Is the Problem, Not the Solution [View all]

[unhappycamper]

http://www.commondreams.org/view/2014/05/16-7



Privatization Is the Problem, Not the Solution
Published on Friday, May 16, 2014 by Rabble.ca
by Mark Taliano

Canadians are forever being informed, explicitly or implicitly, that the solution to the crisis of the day, or decade, is a freedom-sounding word called "privatization." This, the free-marketeers tell us, will solve our problems.

The reality is invariably the opposite. "Privatization" -- also known as bailed-out, highly subsidized corporatism -- is in fact the problem, not the solution.

Furthermore, the crises being addressed are often manufactured for the express purpose of rolling out a parasitical regime of corporatization that profits from calamity, even as its "host," the public, is fleeced.

Canadian author and social activist Naomi Klein identifies the process as the "shock doctrine" and/or "disaster capitalism"; author, environmental activist and economist Winona LaDuke calls it "predator economics"; writers call it neoliberalism and corporate media pretends it doesn't exist.