January 20
GUEST: Donald Cohen, director of In the Public Interest, author of articles in the New York Times, LA Times, the New Republic and the Huffington Post, talks about his latest book, The Privatization of Everything: How the Plunder of Public Goods Transformed America and How We Can Fight Back.
The Privatization of Everything
Each privatization that Donald Cohen discovers in his new book is like a detective story. There is public health, water resources, toll roads, environmental resources, the criminal justice system, public schools, etc. Each segment of what used to be our government's responsibility has been infiltrated, monetized and turned into some grotesque piggy bank for Wall Street billionaires and their financial corporations.
Some of this book is funny. Those in government responsible for the public good are swindled time after time, and we as taxpayers are always left holding the bag. Slapstick really, because the process is so predictable, and our elected officials so stupid.
But what can we expect in a system that allows unlimited campaign donations by the very rich? Perhaps government officials are not as moronic as they seem to be. In a thriving kleptocracy, these officials are simply corrupt, lining their pockets with public money while we all suffer the consequences. That's not really as funny, because the joke is on us.
This book is really about the death of the public good. Our present system is all about unlimited greed and the transfer of money from the nation's poor to its very rich. Even our incomprehensible war machine is driven by the profits of the gargantuan weapons makers, eager to trade lives for millions in weapons sales. Perhaps our corrupt system of government will collapse by itself, or ultimately be torn down by some right wing mob.
