American freedom is heavily reliant on its famed free market principles. Many other countries are labeled by their open economies as well, though one key issue in how they all go about it is evident: privatization.
Privatization is, on its face, a rather liberating idea for small and big businesses alike in the United States. To be able to expand on an idea and produce a profitable enterprise is one of the powers for one to tap into in America.
There is, however, at any rate a place where privatization can go where it becomes uncontrollable and very harmful. Its impact is found all over, though one specific source students see on a daily basis is the participation of the College Board in the education system and its price tags attached to AP tests.
Corporations and companies aiming to privatize sectors of the United States that should rather be in the public hands is a symbol that shows the free market’s most disastrous capabilities.
According to Naomi Klein’s “The Shock Doctrine”, the issue can be discovered in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina when New Orleans’s public school system became entirely privatized, most of the school system being absorbed by newly built charter schools.
A child’s education thrown into the clutch of wealthy businessmen is not entirely foreign within American history, though after a natural disaster–when Louisiana was rebuilding, those same businessmen came in to destroy what remained of the state’s public schools. They instead instituted their own private schools which would reverse many breakthroughs caused by the civil rights era up to this point for disenfranchised and impoverished families.
These detrimental, systemic changes come from the advice of many in monetary power. Milton Friedman, advisor to presidents, foreign ministers, and even dictators, advised upon his perspective for privatizing crucial institutions in the wake of disasters. In the global south even, Friedman introduced his concept of “Chicago Schools” to Chile during Pinochet’s rule, showing this system of monetizing social programs doesn’t rest in the United States, but rather it spreads like an imperialist hivemind.
The military industrial complex as well arises as a corrupted force of private companies. Defense contractors, weapons contractors–and other military-grade producers take a slice of the government’s budget to enrich themselves.
Under President George W. Bush, soldiers saw the extent of privatization as their own healthcare was outsourced to private companies. The practice is neither moral nor responsible as a proprietor of taxpayer money; it is despicable and in opposition of the will of the people.
As much as this can be an American issue, other countries like the United States’s northern neighbor Canada have gone about privatizing their own public domain.
According to municipalserviceproject.org, a global research network aimed at finding alternatives for privatization, British Columbia spent more on private schools rather than its own public schools. The shock and awe economic model of Friedman seemingly has made its generational impact across the globe and may have lasting consequences if nothing is done.
Alongside the education and military taken over by private companies, water–an essential part of human life, is now publicly traded on the stock market. It is abysmal to think the most basic necessities of humanity have been commoditized.
Truthfully, privatization portrays a complex conflict that only results in consequences for the working- and middle-class. The government should be free from all outside influences, solely in the hands of the people who elected them with the Social Contract. Unfortunately, it seems that even the government cannot escape the warlock’s uncontrollable privatization.