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A Key Reason America is No Longer Great: The privatization of state and (especially) local governments

 
 
 
ksen

ksen

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http://angrybearblog.com/2016/07/a-...ernments-especially-the-local-ones-are-3.html

If the public really wants meaningful change and wants to make America great again, one critical component would be to reverse the privatization of what should be, were for most of this country’s history until the Reagan Revolution, and are in virtually every other advanced country, government functions. And to drastically limit the percentage of government spending that can be paid for by fines for traffic violations and ordinance violations.
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Make taxes work again.
 
http://www.kare11.com/news/mpd-not-arresting-for-misdemeanor-bench-warrants/278203637

Minneapolis police are no longer arresting people with first-time misdemeanor bench warrants, in a new city initiative to reduce the number of low-level offenders in jail.

The six-month pilot is part of the Hennepin County Adult Detention Initiative.

Minneapolis City Attorney Susan Segal says about 6,000 people each year are arrested on misdemeanor or gross misdemeanor bench warrants, issued by a judge after the suspects charged via citation or summons fail to appear at their initial court date.

Minneapolis officers will instead give those offenders a second chance, issuing them a new court date and releasing them.
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It's pretty disingenuous of Republicans (at all levels) to slash education funding and then turn around and blame mushrooming student debt on school administrative costs.
 
ksen said:
It's pretty disingenuous of Republicans (at all levels) to slash education funding and then turn around and blame mushrooming student debt on school administrative costs.
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It's the greedy teacher's unions! We need to get rid of them.
 
ksen said:
http://angrybearblog.com/2016/07/a-...ernments-especially-the-local-ones-are-3.html

If the public really wants meaningful change and wants to make America great again, one critical component would be to reverse the privatization of what should be, were for most of this country’s history until the Reagan Revolution, and are in virtually every other advanced country, government functions. And to drastically limit the percentage of government spending that can be paid for by fines for traffic violations and ordinance violations.
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Make taxes work again.
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What's been privatized?
 
The first thing we need to do is figure out what's been privatized that shouldn't have been. That's not the type of job that a government bureaucracy would be able to do competently, however, so we should probably outsource that work to the private sector.
 
Jason Harvestdancer said:
If one wishes to demonstrate that privatization is the problem, it would help to actually have some examples of privatization to use as examples.
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This is an odd thread. I have heard of some prisons in the south that have been privatized. I don't know if they are working on not. I suspect, probably not. But we can't debate an issue unless there are some examples that we can debate pro or con. It seems to me that if privatization were a growing problem that we'd have a lot more examples.
 
Harry_Bosch said:
Jason Harvestdancer said:
If one wishes to demonstrate that privatization is the problem, it would help to actually have some examples of privatization to use as examples.
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This is an odd thread. I have heard of some prisons in the south that have been privatized. I don't know if they are working on not. I suspect, probably not. But we can't debate an issue unless there are some examples that we can debate pro or con. It seems to me that if privatization were a growing problem that we'd have a lot more examples.
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I wouldn't exactly call that privatized. I've yet to see one of these "private" prisons that has any private clients. Every single inmate in a "private" prison is sent there by the government. The "private" prison wouldn't exist without its only customer, the government. It is contracted, not privatized.

I've yet to see a private prison. If anyone tried it, however, you'd see the person trying it being sent to a "private" prison for kidnapping, holding people against their will, enslavement, etc.
 
laughing dog said:
LOL - The "No True Privatization" Fallacy.
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There is a difference.

Private organizations that work on their own behalves are answerable only to their own interests.

Private organizations that contract with public entities to provide services are answerable to those public entities - such as government agencies.

Neither is ideal, but they are not the same and each comes with its own problems, that again are not the same.
 
JonA said:
laughing dog said:
LOL - The "No True Privatization" Fallacy.
Click to expand...

There is a difference.

Private organizations that work on their own behalves are answerable only to their own interests.

Private organizations that contract with public entities to provide services are answerable to those public entities - such as government agencies.

Neither is ideal, but they are not the same and each comes with its own problems, that again are not the same.
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And that is relevant to the issue whether private prisons are really "private" because.....?
 
Yes, for-profit is a valid term.

During my time in the military, I worked along-side both civil servants and contractors. The contractors sat at a government desk doing a government job on a government computer with a government email address. They got a military ID that said "contractor" on it. They company that provided them as labor made a profit by selling labor to the government.

It is an interesting arrangement. Not necessarily a good one, but an interesting one.

Now the name on their paycheck was that of the company that hired them to do that government job. Were they employed in the private sector or the public sector?
 
As for the messed up justice system, I would blame the following:

1) the War on Drugs
2) the Militarization of the Police
3) the get-tough-on crime laws
4) for-profit prisons
5) civil forfeiture
6) the erosion of our fourth, fifth and sixth amendment rights.

Do the libertarians here have any dissections on these?
 
We oppose the war on drugs
We oppose the militarization of the police
We oppose get-tough-on-crime laws
We oppose for-profit prisons
We really oppose civil asset forfeiture
We oppose any erosion of any rights granted by the bill of rights and consider any politician or judge who acts to implement such erosion to be traitors to their oath of office.

I agree that our messed up justice system comes down to those six points. Maybe something else might be on the list but I'm too lazy to come up with anything else right now.
 
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