Some on Right say public emp. unions’ influence on policy is uniquely, inherently corrupting. I say: what about private prison corporations?
Some on Right say public emp. unions’ influence on policy is uniquely, inherently corrupting. I say: what about private prison corporations?
I’ll simply point out that FDR was as pro-union a Dem as they come, but he was very skeptical and opposed to the concept of public employee unions — partly for this very reason.
As for the private prison corporations, care to explain? To my knowledge, not many states have privatized any correctional facilities — the feds certainly haven’t — but my ignorance of some of the details aside, it would appear to be an apples-to-oranges comparison. Private prison corporations fall into the generic question of what is and is not best left to governments to do internally vs. outsource. Some countries nationalize their oil industries and healthcare, others have a different balance. The debate about the outsourcing of this type of work to private corporations typically centers on philosophical questions about the proper role of gov’t and the efficacy and cost of government doing the work vs. private contractors. Any potential for influence on policy and political corruption one way or the other is rarely discussed and considered a major point of that debate.
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=130833741
You’re right Brendan, guys like Joe Arpaio, and legislation like Arizona SB 1070, are popular and supported because of behind-the-scenes prison industry involvement and funding.
[/rolls eyes]
This NPR piece is a great example of taking something completely normal and making it sound nefarious. Anybody whose ever had any experience working in a legislature, for a politician, or as part of a committee staff, would completely understand that this is exactly how things work for a great bulk of the legislation out there… for better or worse. Take Obamacare, for example. Do you think committee and leg staff wrote those 50,000 pages? Hell no — pieces were broken up and “outsourced” to favored interest groups. Because that’s a helluva lot of writing and someone has to do it.
The key is, whoever forms the legislation and helps come up with the strategy and marketing to get it through the process and signed into law, the legislators are still accountable to the voters.
The problem with public sector unions, in contrast, is one of a monopoly of labor and the ability to hold the taxpayers hostage, as well as shape extravagant benefits and such that are damn near impossible to repeal or unravel once passed.
AMLTrojan – I particularly liked this paragraph …
“It was last December at the Grand Hyatt in Washington, D.C. Inside, there was a meeting of a secretive group called the American Legislative Exchange Council. Insiders call it ALEC.”
Let us try that same paragraph with a simple name change …
“It was last December at the Grand Hyatt in Washington, D.C. Inside, there was a meeting of a secretive group called the Democratic National Committee. Insiders call it DNC.”
Ooooh – positively sends shivers down yer spine, now, dunnit ?
Hmmm … given what happened to Juan Williams, and the expressed reason for the termination, I take it that the writer of the article has been terminated for expression opinion rather than simply reporting ?
Especially since the organisation upon which she is reporting is the unbelievably secret ALEC (American Legislative Exchange Council) …
secretive ???
Hmmmm … is Laura one of Andy’s nom de plumes ? The quality of writing is about the same …
AML: I don’t think it needs to be overtly nefarious. The right is often keen to pick up on perverse incentives, and this is one of those places I think we should be aware of them.
I suppose the difference between private prison corporations and public employee unions is that the average citizen has the choice of whether to become the “customer” of the former, but not the latter.