[lbo-talk] London Underground's Privatization Experiment Dead as Remaining PPP is Bought Out

[Wojtek S]

[WS:]  No disagreement here.  But we need to distinguish between government
and political parties that run it, often aground.  The government i.e. civil
servants in the US seems to extremely accountable and responsive.  The
problem is with political parties - essentially private entities controlling
government functions - which sabotage the government for partisan gains.

 This is nothing new, George Washington already talked about this problem in
his farewell address
http://www.earlyamerica.com/earlyamerica/milestones/farewell/text.html
(sections
2-26) - but this critical distinctions esapes most Americans.  They either
mixed up government with political parties or blather about "bureaucracy"
whereas they shoube bashing political parties.

The main reason for PPP is party politics - not  government inability to
carry out its functions.  As GW aptly observed, party politicians want to
exploit their access to public resources for private partisan gains, and PP
come handy as a legitimate way of doing it (i.e. not overtly embezzling
public resources.)

Wojtek

On Thu, May 13, 2010 at 8:55 PM, <123hop at comcast.net> wrote:


> Granted, but accountability is a big deal. A government that is not
> accountable is a problem.
>
> Joanna
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Wojtek S" <wsoko52 at gmail.com>
> To: lbo-talk at lbo-talk.org
> Sent: Thursday, May 13, 2010 11:46:45 AM GMT -08:00 US/Canada Pacific
> Subject: Re: [lbo-talk] London Underground's Privatization Experiment Dead
> as Remaining PPP is Bought Out
>
> PPP is a technical term in public policy discourse, and it denotes a
> meaningful reality. There is a difference between government agencies and
> private entities these agencies contract to deliver public services -
> neoliberalism notwithstanding. To make a long story short, private entities
> can do far more than government agencies can without running into legal
> problems, and that is one of the main reasons why government agencies use
> private entities. Think Blackwater.
>
> Wojtek
>
>
>
>
> On Thu, May 13, 2010 at 2:18 PM, Eric Beck <ersatzdog at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> > Is the public-private distinction even relevant anymore? If
> > neoliberalism has accomplished anything, it has meant the combining of
> > and blurring the lines between capital's functions (production/profit)
> > and the state's functions (capture/reorganization). Capital now has
> > its own reterritorializing arms (public relations, nonprofits,
> > foundations) while the state operates by value-producing and
> > enterprise principles. I don't think it makes much sense to insist on
> > the opposition.
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