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</o:shapelayout></xml><![endif]--></head><body lang=EN-US link=blue vlink=purple><div class=WordSection1><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:16.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'>Published on <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:16.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'>Monday, August 05, 2013<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:16.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'>by <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:16.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'><a href="http://www.commondreams.org" target="_blank"><span style='color:blue'>Common Dreams</span></a><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto'><b><span style='font-size:16.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'>8 Ways Privatization Has Failed America<o:p></o:p></span></b></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:16.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'>by<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:16.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'><a href="http://www.commondreams.org/author/paul-buchheit" target="_blank"><span style='color:blue'>Paul Buchheit</span></a><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto'><span style='font-size:16.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'><img border=0 width=540 height=294 id="Picture_x0020_1" src="cid:image001.jpg@01D1F1AA.DFC09690" alt="Description: http://www.commondreams.org/sites/default/files/imce-images/private_sucks.jpg"></span><span style='font-size:16.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'>Some of America's leading news analysts are beginning to recognize the fallacy of the "free market." Said <a href="http://www.npr.org/2013/06/27/196282376/hopes-and-fears-for-the-future-of-the-world-with-ted-koppel"><span style='color:blue'>Ted Koppel</span></a>, "We are privatizing ourselves into one disaster after another." <a href="http://globalpublicsquare.blogs.cnn.com/2012/03/26/zakaria-how-to-save-american-health-care/"><span style='color:blue'>Fareed Zakaria</span></a> admitted, "I am a big fan of the free market...But precisely because it is so powerful, in places where it doesn't work well, it can cause huge distortions." They're right. A little analysis reveals that privatization doesn't seem to work in any of the areas vital to the American public.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto'><span style='font-size:16.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'>Health Care<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto'><span style='font-size:16.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'>Our private health care system is by far the most expensive system in the developed world. Forty-two percent of sick Americans <a href="http://www.commonwealthfund.org/Newsletters/Washington-Health-Policy-in-Review/2011/Nov/November-14-2011/Sickest-Adults-in-US.aspx"><span style='color:blue'>skipped</span></a> doctor's visits and/or medication purchases in 2011 because of excessive costs. The <a href="http://www.commondreams.org/view/2012/02/01-4"><span style='color:blue'>price of common surgeries</span></a> is anywhere from three to ten times higher in the U.S. than in Great Britain, Canada, France, or Germany. Some of the <a href="http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,2136864,00.html"><span style='color:blue'>documented</span></a> tales: a $15,000 charge for lab tests for which a Medicare patient would have paid a few hundred dollars; an $8,000 <a href="http://healthland.time.com/2013/02/20/bitter-pill-why-medical-bills-are-killing-us/#ixzz2Lk6nOS9h"><span style='color:blue'>special stress test</span></a> for which Medicare would have paid $554; and a $60,000 <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2013/02/01/health/insurance-industry-report-faults-high-fees-for-out-of-network-care.html?_r=1&"><span style='color:blue'>gall bladder operation</span></a>, which was covered for $2,000 under a private policy.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto'><span style='font-size:16.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'>As the examples begin to make clear, Medicare is more cost-effective. According to the <a href="http://www.cahi.org/cahi_contents/resources/pdf/CAHIMedicareTechnicalPaper.pdf"><span style='color:blue'>Council for Affordable Health Insurance</span></a>, Medicare administrative costs are about one-third that of private health insurance. More importantly, our ageing population has been staying healthy. While as a nation we have a <a href="http://www.nap.edu/catalog.php?record_id=13497"><span style='color:blue'>shorter life expectancy</span></a> than <a href="http://jama.jamanetwork.com/article.aspx?articleID=1710486"><span style='color:blue'>almost</span></a> all other <a href="http://sites.nationalacademies.org/xpedio/groups/dbassesite/documents/webpage/dbasse_080620.pdf"><span style='color:blue'>developed</span></a> countries, Americans covered by Medicare <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/the-progress-report/44-years-of-medicare-succ_b_247834.html"><span style='color:blue'>INCREASED their life expectancy</span></a> by 3.5 years from the 1960s to the turn of the century.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto'><span style='font-size:16.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'>Free-market health care has been taking care of the CEOs. <a href="http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,2136864,00.html"><span style='color:blue'>Ronald DePinho</span></a>, president of MD Anderson Cancer Center in Texas, made $1,845,000 in 2012. That's over ten times as much as the <a href="http://www.thenation.com/article/168026/beyond-corporate-capitalism-not-so-wild-dream"><span style='color:blue'>$170,000</span></a> made by the federal Medicare Administrator in 2010. Stephen J. Hemsley, the CEO of United Health Group, made three hundred times as much, with most of his <a href="http://www.forbes.com/lists/2012/12/ceo-compensation-12_rank.html"><span style='color:blue'>$48 million</span></a> coming from stock gains.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto'><span style='font-size:16.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'>Water<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto'><span style='font-size:16.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'>A Citigroup economist <a href="http://worldbusiness.org/privatizing-water-taxing-through-the-tap/"><span style='color:blue'>gushed</span></a>, "Water as an asset class will, in my view, become eventually the single most important physical-commodity based asset class, dwarfing oil, copper, agricultural commodities and precious metals."<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto'><span style='font-size:16.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'>A 2009 analysis of water and sewer utilities by Food and Water Watch <a href="http://www.alternet.org/water/154648/5_deadly_threats_to_our_precious_drinking_water_supply"><span style='color:blue'>found</span></a> that private companies charge up to 80 percent more for water and 100 percent more for sewer services. A more recent <a href="http://www.foodandwaterwatch.org/reports/borrowing-trouble-water-privatization-is-a-false-solution-for-municipal-budget-shortfalls/"><span style='color:blue'>study</span></a> confirms that privatization will generally "increase the long-term costs borne by the public." Privatization is "shortsighted, irresponsible and costly."<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto'><span style='font-size:16.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'>Numerous <a href="http://www.afsc.net/PDFFiles/Food&WaterWatchonPrivatization.pdf"><span style='color:blue'>examples</span></a> of water privatization <a href="http://www.inthepublicinterest.org/sector/water-and-sewer"><span style='color:blue'>abuses or failures</span></a> have been documented in California, Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, New Jersey, Texas, Massachusetts, Rhode Island -- just about anywhere it's been tried. Meanwhile, corporations have been making outrageous profits on a commodity that should be almost free. <a href="http://www.foodandwaterwatch.org/blogs/a-watered-down-education/"><span style='color:blue'>Nestle</span></a> buys water for about 1/100 of a penny per gallon, and sells it back for ten dollars. Their bottled water is <a href="http://naturalsociety.com/bottled-water-costs-1900-times-more-than-tap/"><span style='color:blue'>not much different</span></a> from tap water.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto'><span style='font-size:16.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'>Worse yet, corporations profit from the very water they pollute. <a href="http://grist.org/pollution/2011-06-08-what-dow-chemical-doesnt-want-you-to-know-about-your-water/"><span style='color:blue'>Dioxin-dumping</span></a> Dow Chemicals is <a href="http://www.commondreams.org/view/2013/01/19-3"><span style='color:blue'>investing</span></a> in water purification. Monsanto has been <a href="http://www.alternet.org/take-action/5-most-horrifying-things-about-monsanto-why-you-should-join-global-movement-and-protest"><span style='color:blue'>accused</span></a> of privatizing its own pollution sites in order to sell filtered water back to the public.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto'><span style='font-size:16.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'>Internet, TV, and Phone<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto'><span style='font-size:16.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'>It seems the whole world is leaving us behind on the Internet. According to the <a href="http://www.oecd.org/internet/broadband/oecdbroadbandportal.htm"><span style='color:blue'>OECD</span></a>, South Korea has <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/09/05/internet-speed-united-states-digital-divide_n_1855054.html"><span style='color:blue'>Internet speeds</span></a> up to 200 times faster than the average speed in the U.S., at about half the cost. Customers are charged about <a href="http://www.alternet.org/bill-moyers-why-us-internet-access-slow-costly-and-unfair"><span style='color:blue'>$30 a month</span></a> in Hong Kong or Korea or parts of Europe for much faster service than in the U.S., while triple-play packages in other countries go for about <a href="http://www.alternet.org/books/outrageous-david-cay-johnston-explains-how-big-corporations-withhold-your-taxes-and-then?paging=off"><span style='color:blue'>half</span></a> of our Comcast or AT&T charges.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto'><span style='font-size:16.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'><a href="http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-12-27/u-s-internet-users-pay-more-for-slower-service.html"><span style='color:blue'>Bloomberg</span></a> notes that deregulators in the 1990s anticipated a market-based decline in phone and cable bills, an "invisible hand" that would steer competing companies to lower prices for all of us. Verizon and AT&T and Comcast and Time-Warner haven't let it <a href="http://itsoureconomy.us/2013/07/us-internet-access-slow-and-expensive/"><span style='color:blue'>happen</span></a>.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto'><span style='font-size:16.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'>Transportation<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto'><span style='font-size:16.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'>As Republicans continue to deride public transportation as <a href="http://www.commondreams.org/view/2012/06/22-2"><span style='color:blue'>'socialist'</span></a> and <a href="http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2013/02/14-5"><span style='color:blue'>'Soviet-style,'</span></a> China surges ahead with a plan to create the world's most advanced <a href="http://articles.washingtonpost.com/2011-05-16/local/35264534_1_transportation-major-highway-improvements-samuel-k-skinner"><span style='color:blue'>high-speed rail</span></a> transport network. Government-run high-speed <a href="http://www.commondreams.org/view/2012/05/26-0"><span style='color:blue'>rail</span></a> systems have been successful in numerous other countries, and <a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/2012/mar/19/private-overhaul-roads-terrible-deal"><span style='color:blue'>England</span></a> and <a href="http://www.commondreams.org/view/2013/06/27"><span style='color:blue'>Brazil</span></a> both lament industry privatization.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto'><span style='font-size:16.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'>As a warning to wannabe Post Office privatizers, <a href="http://www.commondreams.org/view/2013/04/15-1"><span style='color:blue'>Greyhound</span></a> and Trailways once provided service to remote locations in America, but deregulation intervened. The bus companies eliminated unprofitable routes, and cutbacks and salary decreases, all in the name of optimal profits, resulted in drivers working up to 100 hours a week -- a fact to consider any time each of us ride the bus.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto'><span style='font-size:16.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'>With privatization comes automatic rate increases. <a href="http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2010-08-09/morgan-stanley-group-s-11-billion-from-chicago-meters-makes-taxpayers-cry.html"><span style='color:blue'>Chicago</span></a> surrendered its parking meters for 75 years and almost immediately faced a doubling of parking rates. California's <a href="http://truth-out.org/news/item/9006-the-new-wall-street-racket-looting-your-city-one-block-at-a-time"><span style='color:blue'>experiments</span></a> with roadway privatization resulted in cost overruns, public outrage, and a bankruptcy; equally disastrous was the state's foray into <a href="http://www.commondreams.org/views01/0222-04.htm"><span style='color:blue'>electric power privatization</span></a>. In Pennsylvania, an analysis of school busing by the <a href="http://keystoneresearch.org/sites/default/files/RunawaySpending.pdf"><span style='color:blue'>Keystone Research Center</span></a> concluded that "Contracting out substantially increases state spending on transportation services."<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto'><span style='font-size:16.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'>Banking<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto'><span style='font-size:16.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'>The industry is bloated with deceit and depravity. Almost all of the big names have taken part. Goldman Sachs designed mortgage packages <a href="http://www.alternet.org/corporate-accountability-and-workplace/are-big-banks-bunch-organized-criminal-conspiracies?paging=off"><span style='color:blue'>to lose money</span></a> for everyone except Goldman. <a href="http://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/2011/December/11-ag-1694.html"><span style='color:blue'>Countrywide</span></a> and <a href="http://www.nclc.org/images/pdf/unreported/paschal-decl-balt.pdf"><span style='color:blue'>Wells Fargo</span></a> targeted Blacks and Hispanics for unaffordable subprime loans. HSBC Bank <a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2012/dec/11/hsbc-fine-prosecution-money-laundering"><span style='color:blue'>laundered money</span></a> for Mexican drug cartels. <a href="http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/the-scam-wall-street-learned-from-the-mafia-20120620"><span style='color:blue'>GE Capital</span></a> skimmed billions of dollars from its customers. Dozens of <a href="http://www.alternet.org/corporate-accountability-and-workplace/4-secretive-ways-wall-street-extorts-you"><span style='color:blue'>hedge fund managers</span></a> have been guilty of insider trading. <a href="http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/why-isnt-wall-street-in-jail-20110216?print=true"><span style='color:blue'>Bank of America</span></a> and <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/economy/jpmorganchase-ceo-jamie-dimon-is-accused-of-hiding-data-about-big-losses/2013/03/14/d95d6394-8ce7-11e2-9838-d62f083ba93f_story.html"><span style='color:blue'>JP Morgan Chase</span></a> hid billions of dollars of bonuses and losses and loans from investors. Banks fixed interest rates in the <a href="http://www.alternet.org/time-rebel-5-ways-we-can-break-big-banks-death-grip-economy"><span style='color:blue'>LIBOR scandal</span></a>. They illegally foreclosed on millions of homeowners in the <a href="http://www.alternet.org/corporate-accountability-and-workplace/5-scandalous-reasons-big-finance-trying-hard-keep-low-profile"><span style='color:blue'>robo-signing</span></a> scandal.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto'><span style='font-size:16.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'><a href="http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/the-great-american-bubble-machine-20100405"><span style='color:blue'>Matt Taibbi</span></a> explained to us how financial malfeasance led to the bubbles in dot-com stocks and housing and oil prices and commodities that extract trillions of dollars away from society.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto'><span style='font-size:16.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'>This is all the result of free-market deregulated private business. The best-known public bank, on the other hand, is the <a href="http://www.alternet.org/corporate-accountability-and-workplace/why-socialism-doing-so-darn-well-deep-red-north-dakota?paging=off"><span style='color:blue'>Bank of North Dakota</span></a>, which remains profitable while <a href="http://www.commondreams.org/view/2013/02/01-9"><span style='color:blue'>serving</span></a> small business and the public at low cost relative to the financial industry.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto'><span style='font-size:16.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'>Prisons<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto'><span style='font-size:16.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'>One would think it a worthy goal to rehabilitate prisoners and gradually empty the jails. But business is too good. With each prisoner <a href="http://www.commondreams.org/view/2013/07/29"><span style='color:blue'>generating</span></a> up to $40,000 a year in revenue, it has apparently made economic sense to put over two million people behind bars.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto'><span style='font-size:16.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'>The need to fill <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/john-w-whitehead/prison-privatization_b_1414467.html"><span style='color:blue'>privatized prisons</span></a> has contributed to <a href="http://www.bop.gov/news/quick.jsp#4"><span style='color:blue'>mass jailings</span></a> for drug offenses, with <a href="http://www.hrw.org/sites/default/files/reports/us0508webwcover.pdf"><span style='color:blue'>African Americans</span></a>, who make up 13% of the population, accounting for 53.5 percent of all persons who entered prison because of a drug conviction. Yet marijuana usage rates are <a href="http://www.aclu.org/billions-dollars-wasted-racially-biased-arrests"><span style='color:blue'>about the same</span></a> for Blacks and whites.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto'><span style='font-size:16.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'>Studies show that private prisons <a href="http://www.alternet.org/rights/155286/8_things_you_need_to_know_about_america%27s_private_prison_industry/"><span style='color:blue'>perform poorly</span></a> in numerous ways: prevention of intra-prison violence, jail conditions, rehabilitation efforts. Investigations in <a href="http://www.nationofchange.org/time-decide-concentrated-privatized-wealth-or-shared-prosperity-and-economic-democracy-1374758622"><span style='color:blue'>Ohio</span></a> and <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2012/06/17/nyregion/in-new-jersey-halfway-houses-escapees-stream-out-as-a-penal-business-thrives.html"><span style='color:blue'>New Jersey</span></a> revealed a familiar pattern of money-saving cutbacks and worsening conditions.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto'><span style='font-size:16.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'>Education<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto'><span style='font-size:16.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'>The notion that charter schools outperform traditional public schools is not supported by the facts. An updated 2013 <a href="http://credo.stanford.edu/documents/NCSS%202013%20Executive%20Summary.pdf"><span style='color:blue'>Stanford University CREDO study</span></a> concluded that privatized schools were slightly better in reading and slightly worse in math, with little difference overall. Charter results have shown an improvement since 2009.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto'><span style='font-size:16.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'>An independent study by <a href="http://www.boldapproach.org/rhetoric-trumps-reality"><span style='color:blue'>Bold Approach</span></a> found that "reforms deliver few benefits, often harm the students they purport to help, and divert attention from...policies with more promise to weaken the link between poverty and low educational attainment."<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto'><span style='font-size:16.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'>Just as with prisons and hospitals, cost-saving business strategies apply to the privatization of our children's education. Charter school teachers have <a href="http://www.centerforpubliceducation.org/Main-Menu/Organizing-a-school/Charter-schools-Finding-out-the-facts-At-a-glance"><span style='color:blue'>fewer years of experience</span></a> and a higher turnover rate. Non-teacher positions have <a href="http://www.alternet.org/school-districts-charter-schools-save-money-impoverishing-support-staff"><span style='color:blue'>insufficient</span></a> retirement plans and health insurance, and much lower pay.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto'><span style='font-size:16.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'>If big money has its way, our children may become high-tech symbols and objects. <a href="http://www.commondreams.org/view/2013/05/10-9"><span style='color:blue'>Bill Gates</span></a> proposes quality control for the student assembly line, with video footage from the classrooms sent to evaluators to check off teaching skills.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto'><span style='font-size:16.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'>Consumer Protection<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto'><span style='font-size:16.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'>Warning signs about unregulated privatization are becoming clearer and more deadly. The Texas <a href="http://www.aflcio.org/Blog/In-The-States/28-Year-Inspection-Gap-at-Deadly-Texas-Fertilizer-Plant-Stunning-Indictment-of-OSHA-s-Underfunding"><span style='color:blue'>fertilizer plant</span></a>, where 14 people were killed in an explosion and fire, was last inspected by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) over 25 years ago. The U.S. Forest Service, stunned by the Prescott, Arizona fire that killed 19, was forced by the <a href="http://blog.ourfuture.org/20130701/sequester-puts-us-at-risk-of-more-wildfire-deaths"><span style='color:blue'>sequester</span></a> to cut 500 firefighters. The <a href="http://www.commondreams.org/view/2013/07/29-3"><span style='color:blue'>rail disaster</span></a> in Lac-Megantic, Quebec followed deregulation of Canadian railways.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto'><span style='font-size:16.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'>Regulation is meant to protect all of us, but anti-government activists have worked hard to turn us against our own best interests. Among recommended Republican <a href="http://www.commondreams.org/view/2012/10/30-5"><span style='color:blue'>cuts</span></a> is the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), which <a href="http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2012-11-01/fema-what-a-relief"><span style='color:blue'>rescued</span></a> hundreds of people after Hurricane Sandy while serving <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2012/10/30/opinion/a-big-storm-requires-big-government.html"><span style='color:blue'>millions</span></a> more with meals and water. In another ominous note for the future, the House passed the Clean Water Cooperative Federalism <a href="http://blog.cleanwateraction.org/2011/06/21/the-latest-dirty-water-bill-a-temper-tantrum-in-writing/"><span style='color:blue'>Act</span></a> of 2011, which would deny the Environmental Protection Agency the right to enforce the Clean Water Act.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto'><span style='font-size:16.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'>Deregulation not only deprives Americans of protection, but it also endangers us with the persistent threat of corporate misconduct. As late as 2004 Monsanto had insisted that <a href="http://www.corpwatch.org/article.php?id=11638"><span style='color:blue'>Agent Orange</span></a> "is not the cause of serious long-term health effects." Dow Chemical, the co-manufacturer of Agent Orange, <a href="http://www.corpwatch.org/article.php?id=11638"><span style='color:blue'>blamed</span></a> the government. Halliburton pleaded guilty to <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2013/07/26/business/halliburton-pleads-guilty-to-destroying-evidence-after-gulf-spill.html?src=me&_r=0"><span style='color:blue'>destroying evidence</span></a> after the Gulf of Mexico oil spill in 2010. Cleanups cost much more than the fines imposed on offending companies, as government costs can run into the <a href="http://www.rff.org/rff/documents/RFF-BCK-Cohen-DHCosts_update.pdf"><span style='color:blue'>billions</span></a>, or even <a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2010/nov/02/bp-oil-spill-costs-40-billion-dollars"><span style='color:blue'>tens of billions</span></a>, of dollars.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto'><span style='font-size:16.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'>People vs. Profits<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto'><span style='font-size:16.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'>As summed up by <a href="http://www.usnews.com/opinion/blogs/susan-milligan/2012/08/28/the-lessons-of-isaac-and-katrina"><span style='color:blue'>US News</span></a>, "Private industry is not going to step in and save people from drowning, or help them rebuild their homes without a solid profit." In order to stay afloat as a nation we need each other, not savvy businesspeople who presume to tell us all how to be rich. We can't all be rich. We just want to keep from drowning.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto'><span style='font-size:16.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'>This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 License<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><a href="http://www.commondreams.org/author/paul-buchheit"><span style='font-size:16.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif";color:blue;text-decoration:none'><img border=0 width=65 height=65 id="Picture_x0020_2" src="cid:image002.jpg@01D1F1AA.DFC09690" alt="Description: http://www.commondreams.org/sites/default/files/styles/cd_bio_small/public/buchheit.jpg?itok=6AKPIgrL"></span></a><span style='font-size:16.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto'><span style='font-size:16.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'>Paul Buchheit is a college teacher, an active member of US Uncut Chicago, founder and developer of social justice and educational websites (UsAgainstGreed.org, PayUpNow.org, RappingHistory.org), and the editor and main author of "<a href="https://www.amazon.com/dp/0932863566/ref=as_li_tf_til?tag=commondreams-20&camp=0&creative=0&linkCode=as1&creativeASIN=0932863566&adid=1MCNFWDB21VVWVVFPEW5&"><span style='color:blue'>American Wars: Illusions and Realities</span></a>" (Clarity Press). He can be reached at <a href="mailto:paul@UsAgainstGreed.org"><span style='color:blue'>paul@UsAgainstGreed.org</span></a>.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p></div></body></html>