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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsPrivate Gain to a Few Trumps Public Good for the Many
By Robert Reich
Congress is in recess, but youd hardly know it. This has been the most do-nothing, gridlocked Congress in decades. But the recess at least offers a pause in the ongoing partisan fighting thats sure to resume in a few weeks.
It also offers an opportunity to step back and ask ourselves whats really at stake.
A society any society - is defined as a set of mutual benefits and duties embodied most visibly in public institutions: public schools, public libraries, public transportation, public hospitals, public parks, public museums, public recreation, public universities, and so on.
Public institutions are supported by all taxpayers, and are available to all. If the tax system is progressive, those who are better off (and who, presumably, have benefitted from many of these same public institutions) help pay for everyone else.
"Privatize" means "Pay for it yourself." The practical consequence of this in an economy whose wealth and income are now more concentrated than at any time in the past 90 years is to make high-quality public goods available to fewer and fewer.
In fact, much of whats called public is increasingly a private good paid for by users ever-higher tolls on public highways and public bridges, higher tuitions at so-called public universities, higher admission fees at public parks and public museums.
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http://robertreich.org/post/59021478207
Laelth
(32,017 posts)-Laelth