We'd All Be Much Wealthier If We Acted Like a Society—Instead We Prop Up the Private Wealth ...

[xchrom]

http://www.alternet.org/economy/public-goods-and-privatization


We'd All Be Much Wealthier If We Acted Like a Society—Instead We Prop Up the Private Wealth of a Small Number of Elites

Congress is in recess, but you'd 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 that's sure to resume in a few weeks.

It also offers an opportunity to step back and ask ourselves what's 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.

[Laelth]

1. k&r for exposure. n/t

-Laelth

[Scuba]

2. ...

[xchrom]

4. Not last night.

Awful night sleep.

[PETRUS]

6. That sucks.

Hope you get some good rest tonight.

[xchrom]

7. Thanks. Nt

[Alkene]

5. Reruns of "Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous"...

broadcast over monitors at the food bank.

A metaphor for equality in the United States.

[kenny blankenship]

8. Yeah, we might be wealthier together and better off

but those of us who measure our wealth and well-being by HOW LITTLE OTHER PEOPLE HAVE COMPARED WITH OURSELVES would be in a hell of a jam.