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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsPublic Beats Private: Six reasons why privatization simply doesn't work
from OnTheCommons.org:
Public Beats Private
Six reasons why privatization simply doesn't work
| by Paul Buchheit
Private systems are focused on making profits for a few well-positioned people. Public systems, when sufficiently supported by taxes, work for everyone in a generally equitable manner.
The following are six specific reasons why privatization simply doesnt work.
1. The Profit Motive Moves Most of the Money to the Top
The federal Medicare Administrator made $170,000 in 2010. The president of MD Anderson Cancer Center in Texas made over ten times as much in 2012. Stephen J. Hemsley, the CEO of United Health Group, made almost 300 times as much in one year, $48 million, most of it from company stock.
In part because of such inequities in compensation, our private health care system is the most expensive system in the developed world. The price of common surgeries is anywhere from three to ten times higher in the U.S. than in Great Britain, Canada, France, or Germany. Two of the documented examples: an $8,000 special stress test for which Medicare would have paid $554; and a $60,000 gall bladder operation, for which a private insurance company was willing to pay $2,000.
......(snip)......
3. Privatization Turns Essential Human Needs into Products
Big business would like to privatize our water. A Citigroup economist exulted, Water as an asset class will, in my view, become eventually the single most important physical-commodity based asset class, dwarfing oil, copper, agricultural commodities and precious metals. .......................(more)
The complete piece is at: http://onthecommons.org/magazine/public-beats-private#sthash.kgSIPdVW.dpuf
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Public Beats Private: Six reasons why privatization simply doesn't work (Original Post)
marmar
Oct 2013
OP
gopiscrap
(23,761 posts)1. It only takes one reason:
all private business is based on greed pure and simple!!!
JNelson6563
(28,151 posts)2. Big K&R
Couldn't agree more.
Julie
The2ndWheel
(7,947 posts)3. And what of human civilization itself?
The largest resource privatizing force the world has probably ever known.
leftstreet
(36,108 posts)4. DURec
bvar22
(39,909 posts)5. Not too long ago, the Democratic Party was headed in the right direction.
In our day these economic truths have become accepted as self-evident. We have accepted, so to speak, a second Bill of Rights under which a new basis of security and prosperity can be [font size=3]established for allregardless of station, race, or creed.[/font]
Among these are:
*The right to a useful and remunerative job in the industries or shops or farms or mines of the nation;
*The right to earn enough to provide adequate food and clothing and recreation;
*The right of every farmer to raise and sell his products at a return which will give him and his family a decent living;
*The right of every businessman, large and small, to trade in an atmosphere of freedom from unfair competition and domination by monopolies at home or abroad;
*The right of every family to a decent home;
*The right to adequate medical care and the opportunity to achieve and enjoy good health;
*The right to adequate protection from the economic fears of old age, sickness, accident, and unemployment;
*The right to a good education.
All of these rights spell security. And after this war is won we must be prepared to move forward, in the implementation of these rights, to new goals of human happiness and well-being.
America's own rightful place in the world depends in large part upon how fully these and similar rights have been carried into practice for all our citizens.
---FDR, State of the Union Address, 1944
Among these are:
*The right to a useful and remunerative job in the industries or shops or farms or mines of the nation;
*The right to earn enough to provide adequate food and clothing and recreation;
*The right of every farmer to raise and sell his products at a return which will give him and his family a decent living;
*The right of every businessman, large and small, to trade in an atmosphere of freedom from unfair competition and domination by monopolies at home or abroad;
*The right of every family to a decent home;
*The right to adequate medical care and the opportunity to achieve and enjoy good health;
*The right to adequate protection from the economic fears of old age, sickness, accident, and unemployment;
*The right to a good education.
All of these rights spell security. And after this war is won we must be prepared to move forward, in the implementation of these rights, to new goals of human happiness and well-being.
America's own rightful place in the world depends in large part upon how fully these and similar rights have been carried into practice for all our citizens.
---FDR, State of the Union Address, 1944
Please note that FDR stipulated the above as Fundamental Human Rights to be protected by our Government of the People,
and NOT as Commodities to be SOLD to Americans (who can afford them) by Private Corporations.
There was a time in my living memory when voting FOR the Democrat
was voting FOR the above Values.
Sadly, this is no longer true.
[font color=firebrick][center]"There are forces within the Democratic Party who want us to sound like kinder, gentler Republicans.
I want a party that will STAND UP for Working Americans."
---Paul Wellstone [/font][/center] [center] [/font]
[font size=1]photo by bvar22
Shortly before Sen Wellstone was killed[/center][/font]
You will know them by their [font size=3]WORKS,[/font]