The Price is Not Right to Privatize/Corporatize

While Drew Carey’s love of Cleveland is solid, some of his ideas for saving the city are not. ["Reason Saves Cleveland with Drew Carey," http://reason.tv/video/show/1050]

Evidence that selling or leasing public assets like water or transportation systems to corporations, often headquartered in another state or country, is flimsy at best. “Public-private partnerships” are often nothing more than misnamed schemes to transfer control of public assets to corporations to maximize profits, often at the expense of public employment, quality of services and local control.

Existing public services are not perfect. But they can always be worse. Residents can now at least bring change by pressuring city service departments and/or public officials. This is much more difficult if a European or Asian based corporation controls the service.

At a time when some European nations are “re-municipalizing” water systems and other public utilities after a sordid record of rising prices and shoddy services, now is not the time to corporatize what is owned by us all. While Carey may feel the price is right for citizens to sell off public assets to corporations, the cost in jobs, service quality and local control is far too expensive.