Not Everything Needs to Make a Profit
I read a story today (this is it) about a town in California thats just ‘outsourced’ its library service to a private, ‘for-profit’ company.
It seems Santa Clarita has joined other cities in California, Oregon, Tennessee and Texas, in handing its public libraries over to Library Systems & Services which is rapidly growing into the country’s fifth-largest library system.
Previously it had only been hired for ailing towns whos finances were in dire straights but in Santa Clarita its been hired for the first time to run a system in a relatively healthy city, setting off an intense and often acrimonious debate about the role of outsourcing in a ravaged economy.
What is it with this bone-headed, dumb-as-nails idea that everything must be run for profit ? Where did it come from ? NO. Just .. NO. This is utterly crazy. Not everything can, or should, be run for profit.
America has one of the most costly, unfair and generally worst-value health services in the developed world for precisely this reason. Has nobody learned anything ? Some things are just far too important to society and the communities it is made up of to leave everything to the profit motive. If public services are less than optimally efficient then what does any sane person do ? Make them more efficient, thats what. Not flog them off to some for-profit speculator.
Don’t get me wrong. There is nothing wrong with private enterprise, properly controlled and regulated, in the right place. However handing over libraries and prisons and wars and law enforcement and areas of public education to it makes many deeply uneasy. This is society regressing, going back to an old and failed model. Sure screwing up the library service won’t cause death and misery in the way screwing up the health service for profit has but its an integral part of a civilized society and has provided countless people with cheap or free opportunities for self-development and education.
We seem to be living in a society obsessed by the ludicrous notion that everything has to be run as a business and make a profit. Thats absolute and utter bollocks. It may be the currently fashionable delusion peddled by those with an interest in benefiting from it but its a cheap, tawdy and grossly short-sighted way to run any society. We all deserve far better than that kind of doctrinaire stupidity.
Tags: #capitalism #economics #society
The demographic with the lowest percentage of approval for raising taxes on people making more than $250,000 per year in income was earners that earn between 100,000 and 250,000 dollars, and even they still support the tax raise with 51% approval. Why aren’t we raising taxes on the rich back to where they were pre-Clinton? It’s not just good policy, it’s also a slam-dunk politically.
Tags: #politics #taxes
And the right twists numbers like these to show how many people disapprove of the bill, but they leave out the part where it says why they disapprove. The Republicans are running on a platform of repealing this bill, but what we really want is a real healthcare bill.
I sure hope people don’t just listen to the first snippet they hear from the Republicans and use that to determine how they vote. Aw who am I kidding, that’s exactly what they’ll do.
Tags: #hcr #politics
The fact that Politico stresses its new polls indicates “a significant majority of voters are considering voting against” Obama when pitted a against a nameless opponent, whereas the same poll shows he’d waltz to a double-digit victory over Palin, pretty much tells you all you need to know about how the press likes to play with Obama polling stories.
And FYI, Politico did not poll a single Republican candidate who would defeat Obama in 2012. And no, there’s not a single Republican candidate who matches Obama’s favorable rating. But yes, this is all very bad news for Obama in 2012.
"Alternate Politico headline: Poll shows Obama would easily defeat Palin | Media Matters for America (via ryking)
In other words, all of this anti-incumbment anti-Democrat rhetoric you’re hearing is just smoke being blown up your ass so the pundits have something to talk about. Other than the economy that is.
Father. Atheist. Liberal. Rabble-Rouser. Boat Rocker. Loudmouth. Dipshit.
