Wednesday, September 14, 2011

Privatization Typically Costs More Than it Saves

Billions of Taxpayer Dollars Wasted on Private Contractors


[excerpted] "A study conducted by the Project for Government Oversight (POGO) found that on average the U.S. government pays private contractors more than twice what it pays federal workers for a number of public services. The disparity amounts to billions of dollars in overpayment each year.
“Our findings were shocking,” researchers wrote. “POGO estimates the government pays billions more annually in taxpayer dollars to hire contractors than it would to hire federal employees to perform comparable services.”

Majia here: In 2008, James Galbraith coined the phrase "predatory state" to capture contractor exploitation. Below find my summary:
In 2008, James Galbraith defined a “predator state” as “a coalition of relentless opponents of the regulatory framework on which public purpose depends, with enterprises whose major lines of business compete with or encroach on the principal public functions of the enduring New Deal” (p. 131). Predatory corporations dictate and “poach” upon public purpose and have no loyalties for nations or populations (p. 131).
An example of this type of exploitation is provided in yesterday's local paper (The Ariz Rep): A citizens group filed suit to block state plans to contract for 5,000 prison beds with a private contractor (p. B1, B9).

The suit contends that cost comparisons done by the State Dept of Corrections every year since 2005 finds private prisons are more expensive and fail to conduct legally required biannual studies on operations.

Private prisons and detention centers are an absolutely booming area of growth and the Carlyle group, an investment group populated by former political officials and the super-wealthy, invests heavilly in the private-prison-industrial complex

Political officials are selling off and leasing our national infrastructure to contractors whose only goal is profit, even when profits are excessive and subvert national purpose.

1 comment:

  1. I was once a reforestation contractor -- and even though my bids were competitive, I would have cost you, dear taxpayer, less if I'd had a normal Forest Service career.

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