News
Is There A Plot Against Pensions?….The latest piece of evidence capturing this divide is a recent report commissioned by Campaign for America’s Future, a left-leaning think tank, and written by outspoken political commentator David Sirota. Titled “The Plot Against Pensions,” Sirota blasts efforts by the Pew Charitable Trusts and the Laura and John Arnold Foundation for what he calls “the right’s ideological crusade against traditional pensions [while helping] billionaires and the business lobby preserve corporations’ huge state tax subsidies.” Governing
Why the UK Can Privatize Its Postal Service, but the US Can’t….. “The U.S. Postal Service is nowhere close to being ready to be privatized,” says Richard Geddes, a professor in the Cornell University Department of Policy Analysis and Management. “I wouldn’t say it’s impossible, but it would be well into the future at a minimum.” That’s because America’s postal service has plunged into such a state of disrepair that it is perhaps the most troubled mail service of any developed nation. Yahoo Finance (blog)
Shutdown of US govt & ‘debt default’: Dress rehearsal for privatization of federal state system?….. The important question: could a process of ‘state bankruptcy’, which is currently afflicting local level governments across the land, realistically occur in the case of the central government of the United States of America? This is not a hypothetical question. A large number of developing countries under the brunt of IMF ‘economic medicine’ were ordered by their external creditors to dismantle the state apparatus, fire millions of public sector workers as well as privatize state assets. The IMF’s Structural Adjustment Program (SAP) has also been applied in several European countries. RT.com
AL: Outsourcing justice: Opponents say private probation companies create modern-day debtors’ prisons… The Childersburg lawsuit is part of a mounting backlash against the use of private probation companies in Alabama. Dozens of cash-strapped Alabama cities have hired private companies to make sure people pay fines imposed for small offenses – an arrangement that often costs the city nothing, while improving the rate of collection on city fines. Critics say the system blurs the line between guilt and innocence, turning small offenses into major financial obligations landing people in jail for traffic violations or other small offenses simply because they’re too poor to pay. Anniston Star