Privatization has no respect for the common good

the perversion of privatization... be afraid, be very afraid...

In the past year, banks and private investment firms have fallen in love with public infrastructure. They're smitten by the rich cash flows that roads, bridges, airports, parking garages, and shipping ports generate—and the monopolistic advantages that keep those cash flows as steady as a beating heart. Firms are so enamored, in fact, that they're beginning to consider infrastructure a brand new asset class in itself.

With state and local leaders scrambling for cash to solve short-term fiscal problems, the conditions are ripe for an unprecedented burst of buying and selling. All told, some $100 billion worth of public property could change hands in the next two years, up from less than $7 billion over the past two years; a lease for the Pennsylvania Turnpike could go for more than $30 billion all by itself. "There's a lot of value trapped in these assets," says Mark Florian, head of North American infrastructure banking at Goldman, Sachs & Co.

let's get something clear here... private sector companies have ZERO requirement to serve the common good... by law, publicly-held companies are accountable ONLY to their shareholders, and the shareholders are, by and large, interested in one thing and one thing only - maximizing their investment... i posted last week about how public utilities, specifically u.s. municipal water systems, were privatization targets, and how such privatization of water resources has been an unqualified disaster in many places elsewhere in the world... roads, highways and bridges belong to the people... the people - ALL the people - use them, and ALL the people need to be able to use them... the pay-per-use, for-profit approach to resources meant to benefit the common good is a perversion and must be resisted at all costs...

(thanks to crooks and liars...)

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