I've long felt the latest incarnation of conservatism should be called out for what it is....a radical experiment. Yeah, they try to wrap themselves in a historical context wearing those stupid tricorn hats and antebellum garb, groping at the Boston tea party history like drunks after a busty bar maid....but it's all just for show. The recent brand of conservatism is an extreme experiment and the American People are the lab rats in some Ayn Randian dystopian social experiment known as "Privatize Everything".... because while conservatives prance around with the American flag, America and the States are somehow, inexplicably inherently incompetent at absolutely everything.
So how's this social experiment working out?
Well...the currently and unprecedentedly deep red Michigan government saw fit to privatize the prison food system, shelling out millions in taxpayer dollars to Aramark, a private food, facility, and uniform services. And what did we end up with? Maggots in the meat. Untrained staff who can't keep track of steel kitchen equipment, and who consort with the inmates bringing in all sorts of contraban from drugs to phones....food left out, filthy kitchens, staffing shortages, and SIXTY FIVE instances where the prisons RAN OUT OF FOOD because apparently Aramark executives are too busy cramming their pockets with tax payer money to actually.....you know.....DO THEIR JOBS.
Ah yes...that's what we call "efficiency" because the private sector is soooooo "efficient" at....apparently just taking money and running...
As also evidenced by the Muskegon Heights school system which was sold in its entirety to Mosaica, a for profit school thing by one of Snyder's financial managers. Mosaica promised to SOMEHOW magically cut overhead and maintain buildings and educate the students AND turn a profit margin.................
....well..they DID turn a profit margin. But they also failed to maintain the buildings and wren't able to pay the teachers and cut and ran after just one year into their three year contract. Or they were fired for incompetency...it really depends on who you ask. Either way, the buildings are crumbling and there's not enough to pay the teachers.....
We've been educating Americans with public schools for over a hundred years and we were the ENVY OF THE WORLD!!! Suddenly selling those schools off to educational chop shops is a GREAT IDEA!!!
....but we can also look at the Detroit water department which has cut of water to tens of thousands of homes and is threatening 324,000 households all in the name of clearing up the books so the city can PRIVATIZE the water department.... and WHY?
WHY?!?!
Because it's so much EASIER to govern when you don't actually have to DO ANYTHING. Because serving the people is HARD and making somebody else do a shittier job at tax payer expense is SO MUCH EASIER.
This privatizing is NOT WORKING. It's NOT working. It's not saving money. It's not offering better services. It's a miserable failure.
You CANNOT streamline a systerm with NO profit margin by turning it over to a system that does the same (or worse) WITH a profit margin ON TOP of operating expenses. It's a fantasy.
Look...Michigan already gutted the Unions...what MORE can privatization POSSIBLY DO?
This is all based on some deep abiding religious faith in the divine word of Ayn Rand and it's demonstrably idiotic.
Privatization is an experiment that has FAILED in spectacular fashion and it needs to be called out.