Privatizing and Profiteering

The cliched yodel of the republican true believers who insist ours is a capitalist economy and that only by virtue of "the free market system" can it remain strong is debunked (in just one specific instance) by Robert Kuttner, writing in the Boston Globe. Other examples spring to mind. It's just that when the "have mores" say "capitalist economy" they mean "corporate welfare state."

Ross Perot, the first corporate welfare billionaire was rewarded by Richard M Nixon. Shortly before the Paris Peace Accords, Perot was delegated to place adds in the 100 largest U.S. daily newspapers. The adds pleaded that the U.S. not waffle on the negotiations until all the POWs and MIAs were accounted for. And thus did the narrative of the U.S. Invasion of Vietnam turn to become all about saving the POW/MIAs. In one of the cruelest hoaxes Nixon foisted upon the American public, the definition of MIA was expanded to include KIAs/BNR (Killed in Action, Body Not Recovered). The KIA/BNR included names of military personnel known to have perished. 81% of the KIA/BNRs were air force pilots, shot down. Their bodies couldn't be recovered.

In previous wars KIA/BNRs were tabulated separately (source: Vietnam and Other Fantasies by H. Bruce Franklin).

Here's a higher education scandal.

The Deepening college loan scandal is a classic case of what can happen when government uses private companies as middlemen to carry out public goals. Lately, investigations by New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo, US Senator Edward Kennedy, and others have revealed a number of problems:

Bribes paid by loan companies to colleges and universities. ...

Personal conflicts of interests by some college student aid officials.

Self-dealing by US Department of Education officials. ...

Exorbitant profiteering in this industry, which is subsidized by taxpayers. ... Kennedy points out, the problems go much deeper.The private student loan industry exists side-by-side with a more efficient and corruption-free direct loan program run by the federal government. ...

The oddity of having two programs side by side has been repeatedly criticized by the Government Accountability Office. The proliferation of private student loan programs adds complexity as well as cost. ...

The private lending industry adds nothing of value and takes no real risk, since loan repayment is guaranteed by the government. It simply skims off exorbitant profit at taxpayer expense — and then adds further costs of marketing and bribing college officials ...

(MG) In Islam, the lending of money at interest is prohibited. The self-interests of the financial elites is directly threatened by Islam. Adding nothing of value and taking no real risks are the antithesis of what the Qu'arn teaches.

Over time, the private student lending industry has become a major lobbying force, using political connections and campaign contributions to hobble its more efficient direct government competitor and block limits on its own profits. The industry succeeded in rigging the rules so that the more efficient public program is losing market share. One provision rammed through the Republican Congress prohibits the public program from marketing itself. Another kept Congress from reducing the maximum interest rates private lenders could charge. ...

(MG) there's more to the post, but I grow weary, and perhaps that's the point of all the corruption, to simply inure well-intentioned people from feeling pain; or to suck their energies away from the fiery stage of agitation.