Today's Must-Read: Privatizing Everything?

It's a basic principle, I think, that some things should not be subject to the profit motive, including most government services, for which we're already paying taxes: education, infrastructure, water and sewer systems, and I'd be happy to add to that energy and Internet. But, corporations being what they are, they keep trying:

When it's not obsessing over its citizens' bathroom habits, North Carolina's GOP-led legislature is ogling any public infrastructure that generates revenue for state cities. Take it away and you cripple the economic base of those centers of blue-leaning voters. Which happens to coincide with the interests of international corporations in getting control of "their water" out of the hands of not-for-profit public agencies.

North Carolina is not the only state where this is happening -- Sullivan starts off with a story about Nestle's attempt to get control of a municipal water system in Pennsylvania -- and there are other examples across the country, and it's not only water. Schools are a favorite target, as well. Here's an interesting article on the tactics used in privatizing education. And the abuses in private prisons -- well, they start from the ground up.

And it seems that in every case, service has declined, costs have gone up, and the general result is a negative for everyone except the corporations involved.

Do we really want to do that with our water supplies?