vox
21st August 2002, 19:41
Published on Wednesday, August 21, 2002 in the lndependent/UK
Children are Victims of Privatization, Warns Charity
by Anne Penketh
The British charity Save the Children said yesterday that increased involvement by the private sector in supplying basic services would lead to price rises that would harm the world's poorest children.
In a report released before the Earth Summit opens in Johannesburg on Monday, Save the Children UK pointed to the negative effects of opening up to multinationals the ownership of public services such as water distribution in poor countries.
(Full Article (http://www.commondreams.org/headlines02/0821-01.htm))
Despite the obvious flaws of a "free market" system, we know that privatization leads to increased prices for consumers and generally a lower quality of service. Private corporations have higher administrative costs than government agencies (take a look at the SSA, for example) and these costs are passed along to consumers.
Now water is being called the "oil" of the 21st century. Corporations see a huge market for this most basic of needs. Perhaps never before has the avarice of the capitalist class been so profoundly evident, nor so profoundly repulsive. In cold, corporate logic, it's determined that if someone can't pay, too bad for him, and it just doesn't matter how much misery is caused in the pursuit of ever-greater profits.
After years of being told by the IMF and the World Bank that the money must not be spent on social services, poor nations will now, apparently, be told who will supply water to their citizens. Once again, democracy takes a back seat to the decisions of the capitalist ruling class.
vox
(Edited by vox at 3:15 pm on Aug. 21, 2002)
Children are Victims of Privatization, Warns Charity
by Anne Penketh
The British charity Save the Children said yesterday that increased involvement by the private sector in supplying basic services would lead to price rises that would harm the world's poorest children.
In a report released before the Earth Summit opens in Johannesburg on Monday, Save the Children UK pointed to the negative effects of opening up to multinationals the ownership of public services such as water distribution in poor countries.
(Full Article (http://www.commondreams.org/headlines02/0821-01.htm))
Despite the obvious flaws of a "free market" system, we know that privatization leads to increased prices for consumers and generally a lower quality of service. Private corporations have higher administrative costs than government agencies (take a look at the SSA, for example) and these costs are passed along to consumers.
Now water is being called the "oil" of the 21st century. Corporations see a huge market for this most basic of needs. Perhaps never before has the avarice of the capitalist class been so profoundly evident, nor so profoundly repulsive. In cold, corporate logic, it's determined that if someone can't pay, too bad for him, and it just doesn't matter how much misery is caused in the pursuit of ever-greater profits.
After years of being told by the IMF and the World Bank that the money must not be spent on social services, poor nations will now, apparently, be told who will supply water to their citizens. Once again, democracy takes a back seat to the decisions of the capitalist ruling class.
vox
(Edited by vox at 3:15 pm on Aug. 21, 2002)