Not to sound like some sort of weird Pollyanna, but despite the considerable downsides and probable suffering involved, perhaps the Trump administration’s coming destruction of America’s governing institutions is overdue. Maybe we need a thorough-going rethinking of the ways in which America’s current governing structures support and encourage some very destructive approaches–especially to our economic life.
As I have frequently asserted, I am a huge fan of market capitalism–properly understood. By “properly understood,” I mean a system that recognizes two essentials of a working market economy: the maintenance of a true level playing field, which requires rational, reasonable regulation; and proper recognition of the areas of the economy that are not suited to a market approach. Markets are marvelous devices for the production of all manner of goods and services–and absolutely inappropriate and damaging in other areas of our communal lives.
The basic definition of a market transaction is one in which a willing buyer and willing seller, both of whom are in possession of all information relevant to the transaction, enter into a sales agreement. Rather obviously, that definition excludes things like medical care, where the “buyer” is not in possession of the same information as the provider, and is generally in no position to bargain with the provider or to shop around for a better deal.
What about transactions where the “buyer” is government?
Take prisons. In a market economy, should government “purchase” incarceration services from entities competing for those government contracts? Or–as most of us might suspect–does the prospect of a “buyer” with virtually unlimited resources thanks to the taxing power invite would-be contractor/sellers to engage in a range of unethical behaviors–big donations to selected political figures in order to get the contracts, and/or failure to provide the services at an optimum (or even adequate) level in order to generate more profit?
Should prisons be privatized–i.e., considered part of the market economy? Or is the marketization of such essentially governmental services an invitation to corruption?
One recent report looked at the “industry” of immigrant detention. Titled “Revenue Over Refuge,” the report found the following:
- Hundreds of millions of dollars are flowing from city and federal governments to private equity firms for goods and services used to detain immigrants.
- 63 percent of federally-designated ICE facilities contract with private equity-owned companies for a range of services.
- Private equity-owned companies are winning emergency contracts for managing migrant shelters in cities across the country.
- Companies like Wellpath and G4S have faced investigations and lawsuits and paid out settlements for mistreating immigrants in their care.
- Private equity firms and other alternative asset managers stand to profit from increased taxpayer-funded immigration detention, although alternatives to detention cost less.
Are we really surprised to find corporate America engaging in these profit-maximizing tactics? More fundamentally, are prisons the sort of consumer item we think of when we consider the merits of healthy market economies?
When I was still teaching, I required the graduate students in my Law and Public Policy classes to produce team projects on a policy issue that the team would choose. Over the years, several of the teams investigated government contracting with the private prison industry. In every case, the teams’ conclusions were highly negative. Not only did they focus on the poor performance of the contractors–and the high potential for graft–but most teams addressed what I think is the underlying philosophical question: when should government contract out–and when shouldn’t it? When is it appropriate for government to be the “willing buyer” in a market transaction?
America is heading for a very ugly few years, as the MAGA movement tries to install a government that might have been appropriate for an 18th Century society–a government utterly insufficient for America’s contemporary culture and other realities of the 21st Century. The next few years will range from very unpleasant to devastating (those of us with documented citizenship, a measure of financial security and white skin will be spared the worst of it; others won’t be so lucky.) But when the fever subsides, when the current MAGA eruption of racism, misogyny, anti-Semitism and other assorted bigotries has run its course (at least this time), the rest of us must be ready to offer practical systemic and economic reforms.
Production of that reform agenda needs to be a central part of the Resistance.
The “two essentials” I have recognized in our currently devastating political chaos as we await the execution of his actual takeover is that CRIME PAYS and following the rules is a losing situation. It doesn’t appear to be a crime to NOT do the work or carry out the responsibilities candidates promised in their campaigns for our support and our money; that information is in the Constitution of the UNITED States of America. Republicans do as they please to better their position in government and have been highly successful, the Democrats basically follow the rules, laws, ordinances and do their best to keep promises made and are now wondering what happened.
By the way; the future we are looking at under Trump, based on his current edicts, promises and threats, may not happen…HE LIES. He also runs a revolving door Cabinet and administration and whomever he appoints may be gone the following week..or day. We know not what lies ahead so we know not how or what to prepare for but we need to keep a large jar of Vaseline handy at all times.
“America is heading for a very ugly few years, as the MAGA movement tries to install a government that might have been appropriate for an 18th Century society–a government utterly insufficient for America’s contemporary culture and other realities of the 21st Century.”
“ the rest of us must be ready to offer practical systemic and economic reforms.” -I agree wholeheartedly. And I agree that there are some much-needed reforms for many government agencies and functions. But now that the U.S. is about to be ruled by billionaire oligarchs I do not have much confidence that the reforms they will be championing are the reforms that will lead to making life better for those of us in the middle classes.
There are some government functions that should not be subject to the whims of the market. Prisons are not in that bucket, and health care and education should not be motivated by profit, among others.
Also, JoAnn Green, you hit the nail on the head with your comments. Well said.
One of the political myths that the right believes is that it would be wise to weed out socialism and replace it with capitalism.
The two economic systems are based on who owns the means of production, some or all of us. (means being all the tools used to produce products or services, market them, and provide them in the marketplace.) Every country operates a marketplace and produces goods and services privately and publically.
Progress has been the story of replacing labor with means (mechanization and automation), so things are changing daily. Adjustments in economic systems are necessary to keep up with progress.
MAGA is motivated by transferring wealth from workers to owners of capital means.
This spells trouble because workers are essentially the consumers, and the market collapses if no one can afford more goods and services.
Bright blue election districts will choose to adapt to that future. The secret sauce, though, is to do that without resorting to right-wing authoritarianism.
The Lewis Powell Memorandum of 1971 in which he warned American businesses that the New Deal was an attack on business and called for them to fight back is bearing fruit.
The Heritage Foundation and other deceptively named think tanks, the Federalist Society, the Tea Party, the Koch Brothers networks, and Citizens United have been relentless.
You have to admire their determination.
Time for those of us wanting healthy public policy to double our efforts.
in our neighborhood, 30 years ago, there was a former hotel turned into a privatized halfway house. It was called Riverside correctional facility. There was very little oversight and the operator was paid per person, and the only incentive he had was to cram as many people as he could into this particular building. In the nearby apartment building that faced Riverside, the apartments rented at half the rate. of the same apartments in the same building on the other side that faced away from Riverside. The public nuisance created by cramming this building full of low level nonviolent work release citizens was terrible. At night drug dealers would stand in the alley, hollering up at people as they lowered little baskets on strings with money and hauled drugs and other contraband back up. The group that had the contract had political connections with a slightly shady county sheriff, and because they were the county sheriff, they had very little oversight from the local government. I can tell you from personal experience, privatizing jails can go really wrong.
From my work experience, outsourcing anything takes as much management and oversight as you would’ve had as if the company had kept it internal, but there’s a belief that because it’s outsourced none of that management manpower is necessary. Typically outsourcing. doesn’t result in the efficiencies or savings you would expect.
Back in the 80s England embarked on a big privatization kick. Many municipal water companies were privatized. Now England is suffering through a crisis in environmental water quality because to maximize profits, it’s a lot cheaper to dump untreated sewage into the streams in rivers, than to actually do it right.
Privatizing base of government functions doesn’t work on so many levels.
The business of business is to make money. The business of government is to provide a service to the people. It might not seem so, but the two are not necessarily compatible. Americans assume that businessmen are better at managing. Again, it might seem so, but it’s so much easier to manage when you don’t have the restraints or the size that are necessary to provide a service for all.
That, in a nutshell, is why we shouldn’t turn government over to the billionaires. They think they need to make a profit, when what they really need to make is a difference.
“Grift?” Trump’s middle name.
Running a government like running a business is a dead end.
JoAnn – WADR “Democrats basically follow the rules, laws, ordinances and do their best to keep promises made and are now wondering what happened.” Excuse me – Democrats run with dark money, Democrats write regulatory loopholes handed them (paid for with campaign money) by lobbyists, etc..
Peggy certainly touched on the motivation of different leaders, but I can assure you that even without privatization and outsourcing, there is plenty of corruption within our government.
Someone mentioned County Sheriffs who get a percentage of profits from operating local jails and prisons. Do you think they are motivated to be good stewards? Biden just extended contracts with private detention centers housing immigrants even though there are plenty of reports about sexual abuse within these facilities.
Someone mentioned 1980 in England. Well, the 1980s in the US under Reagan also began the privatization of government in what is now called the beginning of Neoliberalism. Reagan and Thatcher are the founders of neoliberalism, which continued with every single POTUS up through to Biden. The culmination of which is the billionaires coming in 2025. Russ Vought, Trump’s nomination to OMB, will orchestrate the government reduction plans. It will be easy to determine who this benefits.
Authoritarianism is the antidote for our so-called democracy, which is slow and deliberate. Putin and Xi don’t have to get approval from the people’s representatives. The oligarchs like this idea and will be implementing this system of government under Trump (the absolute worst choice for an authoritarian).
US citizens will need to grapple with the future of our economic and political systems. Allowing the oligarchy to rule over both has obtained the exact problems we’d expect. We will see oligarchy and authoritarianism, which will not benefit the people. If you expect Trump or Musk to rule as stewards of goodwill for all, it will be a VERY long four years or longer…
Wall Street versus the Koch network. Wall Street uses the government to get what it wants, while the Koch network wants to eliminate the government and let markets rule, even voting. It’s not about “shrinking the government” with the Kochs – it’s about eliminating the government!
Lester, not quite. Republicans are responsible for trying to privatize/free market those things that are absolutely not market-oriented. And, of course, they screw it all up. I wrote about for-profit prisons and for-profit health care debacles in my book, “Racing to the Brink: The End Game for Race and Capitalism”. You should read it. You will be chilled by what the Republicans intend to do with public education too.
The “bottom line” to this discussion is that greed is the driving force behind ALL capitalist enterprises. If the greed isn’t regulated, it kills the entity it’s supposed to nurture and foster. Take prisons … the corruption about extending sentences via corrupt judges (kickbacks from prisons) creates a total departure from the idealism of justice. Take health care … when Republicans allowed health insurers to make medical decisions by denying coverage, they created this greed-oriented environment that make the U.S.’s health care system the most costly and least responsive in the world. People want to say that Canada has long waiting periods. True, but they also have a pro-active system that PREVENTS illnesses, thus reducing the “traffic”.
As Rick Wilson always says: Everything Republicans touch dies. And look at what we just elected. Grift is way too kind a word to describe the nightmare that is coming.
We have a businessman and a grifting self-identified white nationalist preacher about to run state government with the help of a GOP/MAGA super-majority in the General Assembly, a media hog as AG and another grifter as SoS here in the deep red state of Indiana. What could possibly go wrong!
As for county sheriffs, they are the highest ranking law enforcement officers in each jurisdiction, above chief of police or town marshals. It is a rotten system when there is no competition for the job. Arpaio is a glaring example of how an elected law enforcement office can be corrupted. We have our own example in Jamie Noel in Clark County. He donated stolen funds from public safety to GOP state and federal level officeholders who were “shocked” when informed of his corruption and graft. These people run little fiefdoms, intimidating and abusing power to keep things going their way indefinitely, even deciding what laws they will obey and those they refuse to enforce. And they hire those like themselves who are willing to intimidate and abuse to please their boss and keep their status and jobs.
For all the weeping and moaning about the people in the headlines who are promising to undue protections and promote profit-taking as the only legitimate goal, we have to remember that they have a whole line of people more than willing to actually do or undo the work needed to dismantle our government protections to air, water, soil, health and infrastructure. None of them can do it alone. Hold all of them publicly accountable.
JD, the word “fiefdom” is the perfect scenario for many instances within our state. When the state ran the Indiana Lottery, they couldn’t donate (kickback) to individual politicians. Therefore, the lottery was sold to an LLC created by the Italian mob. Now that it’s a privatized fiefdom, the monies can flow to and fro. 😉
As mentioned before, two interested parties asked me to look at what they had experienced in our corrupt little East Central Indiana county. Both homeowners were approached during the day by people claiming they bought their residence at a tax sale. To their amazement, their homes were sold at an auction for nonpayment of property taxes. It didn’t take much time to piece together the elaborate scheme by a local democratic judge (now retired), the county sheriffs (democrat and republican), and several local lawyers (two now disbarred). The judge and her clerk claimed hearings occurred to foreclose on these properties, and the official docs were sent to fictitious addresses. It was incredible; from what I gathered, it had been happening for years. I sent it to county commissioners and the county lawyer, but I am still waiting for something to happen. They claimed complete denial. I contacted the Indy FBI twice, and they wanted my files. However, they never showed up. The Supreme Court Justices were informed as well, but nothing happened.
The corrupt players were from both political parties and across all branches of the government. So, if you think our government is much better than the corrupt oligarchs, think again. The people need to make wholesale changes to our government and our economic system.
The prime communicator in US is money. Money talks in politics/government and is magnified and fortified by Citizens United. US is in the throes of what the role of government is going to be. Is the welfare of citizens even going to be a consideration when maximized financial profit is the ultimate goal of Maga leadership?
HRC’s points out that bank deregulation might be on the horizon and our money accounts would no longer be insured. How much of a cash grab will be allowed as DJT attempts to set up a “Let’s make a Deal” in the oval office? Bye, bye to the IG’s!
Money doesn’t talk – it shouts and controls all….