One front where many citizens can come together in the Trump era is in the struggle for what we own together. These sales range from local police departments auctioning recovered, but unclaimed property, to office buildings and lands no longer needed by the Federal Government.
Many city governments are on the verge of bankruptcy, struggling to provide the most basic services to their citizens.
The examples border on absurd. But given the aversion of the Republican Congress to spending money on domestic needs, the final legislation will certainly lean heavily on private finance and privatized operations and maintenance.
Last spring, the state handed its Medicaid system to three big insurance companies. With the Trump presidency and Republican control of Congress, privatization will drastically accelerate—from privatized infrastructure and private prisons to voucherized schools and Medicaid or Medicare.
Advantages While there is much truth to the many claims of the abuse of privatization and the problems that often accompany it, opponents fail to recognize that governments cannot provide all things to all people.
Free or low-cost provision of water and sewer service, public transit, public education, and public parks tends to help lower-income people, based on the premise that these are basic public goods. On the other hand, communication services such as the telephone, telegraph, television, and transportation were developed initially by private organizations, sometimes with government assistance, but remain heavily regulated to ensure that these services are available to all citizens.
The question is not whether to privatize government services, but which services, if any, would be better provided by private contractors acting on behalf of the government.
If so, which ones? Privatization often raises costs for the public and governments.