One of the biggest items on the transnational corporate, globalist right wing agenda is privatization. In the third world, they aim for privatizing water, oil, energy... So, it is no surprise that the Wall Street Journal, on it's right wing extremist, wild and crazy editorial page, defends the idea of privatizing bridges.

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One of the biggest items on the transnational corporate, globalist right wing agenda is privatization. In the third world, they aim for privatizing water, oil, energy... and if they could, they'd sell the right to air. Just imagine putting up millions of people in public housing-- privatized, of course, and offering clean, cool air from metered vents or polluted, muggy, hot, unfiltered air-- as in open windows.

So, it is no surprise that the Wall Street Journal, on it's extremist, wild and crazy editorial page, defends the idea of privatizing bridges(subscription required to read full article.) They cite a handful of examples of how mayors or governors have cut deals, usually with foreign companies, to sell rights, usually for 50-75 years, to run roads. They argue that corporations are better are projecting growth in use of the roads, or bridges or tunnels... But you have to wonder. When those urban or state bureaucrats make their lowball estimates, are they doing so with a job offer in their pocket?

If a city official estimates that growth of uitilation of a road will be one percent, and it's really three or four or five percent, then, when the government negotiates with the privatizing company, the government owned asset being negotiated could very well be "sold" in this long term lease arrangement, which usually involves a up-front incentive payment, for a tiny portion of what the asset is really worth. For example, if a stretch of toll road, currently netting, say $100 million a year is projected, but some low-paid city planner to grow one percent a year, while the reality is it will increase two, three, even five or more percent, the increased profit for the corporation and loss for the municipality or state is huge, and it goes on for a very, very long time.

Now, it is very likely that this kind of privatization WILL continue to develop, though I oppose it. If it is going to happen, there should be some caveats.

1-Estimates of growth and revenues should be at least triple sourced from independent experts.

2- re-assessment of growth rates of utilization. If profits are much higher, then a percentage of the profits go to the government, or the lease is shortened proportionately.

3- Just as bidding on government jobs requires multiple bidders, bidding for these long term privatization leases should absolutely be required. And there should be no rush- at least a one year notice. . These are very long term leases.

4- There should be a federal law that prohibits government employees, including legislators, mayors, governors, etc. from taking employment or consultant work, directly or through third or fourth party organizations associated with any privatization project they even look at while receiving a government paycheck. Since the monetary rewards can potentially be enormous, punishment for violation should not be fines, it should be time in jail.

It is very difficult to reverse privatization. When leaders attempt it, they are villified as communists, socialists, revolutionaries or criminals. Yet, so often, privatization IS criminal-- theft, fraud, blackmail, even involving or supporting murder, slavery, causes of unnecessary deaths and more. It's better to get this kind of thing right the first time.

Ideally, getting it right means funding government properly to take care of infrastructure. But if weak, invertebrate or corrupt leaders are going to sell off the American commons, we should at least set up rules that minimize the exploitation of the privatizers.

Authors Bio:

Rob Kall is an award winning journalist, inventor, software architect,
connector and visionary. His work and his writing have been featured in the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, CNN, ABC, the HuffingtonPost, Success, Discover and other media.

Check out his platform at RobKall.com

He is the author of The Bottom-up Revolution; Mastering the Emerging World of Connectivity

He's given talks and workshops to Fortune
500 execs and national medical and psychological organizations, and pioneered
first-of-their-kind conferences in Positive Psychology, Brain Science and
Story. He hosts some of the world's smartest, most interesting and powerful
people on his Bottom Up Radio Show,
and founded and publishes one of the top Google- ranked progressive news and
opinion sites, OpEdNews.com

more detailed bio:

Rob Kall has spent his adult life as an awakener and empowerer-- first in the field of biofeedback, inventing products, developing software and a music recording label, MuPsych, within the company he founded in 1978-- Futurehealth, and founding, organizing and running 3 conferences: Winter Brain, on Neurofeedback and consciousness, Optimal Functioning and Positive Psychology (a pioneer in the field of Positive Psychology, first presenting workshops on it in 1985) and Storycon Summit Meeting on the Art Science and Application of Story-- each the first of their kind. Then, when he found the process of raising people's consciousness and empowering them to take more control of their lives one person at a time was too slow, he founded Opednews.com-- which has been the top search result on Google for the terms liberal news and progressive opinion for several years. Rob began his Bottom-up Radio show, broadcast on WNJC 1360 AM to Metro Philly, also available on iTunes, covering the transition of our culture, business and world from predominantly Top-down (hierarchical, centralized, authoritarian, patriarchal, big) to bottom-up (egalitarian, local, interdependent, grassroots, archetypal feminine and small.) Recent long-term projects include a book, Bottom-up-- The Connection Revolution, debillionairizing the planet and the Psychopathy Defense and Optimization Project.

Rob Kall Wikipedia Page

Rob Kall's Bottom Up Radio Show: Over 400 podcasts are archived for downloading here, or can be accessed from iTunes. Or check out my Youtube Channel

Rob Kall/OpEdNews Bottom Up YouTube video channel

Rob was published regularly on the Huffingtonpost.com for several years.

Rob is, with Opednews.com the first media winner of the Pillar Award for supporting Whistleblowers and the first amendment.

To learn more about Rob and OpEdNews.com, check out A Voice For Truth - ROB KALL | OM Times Magazine and this article.

For Rob's work in non-political realms mostly before 2000, see his C.V.. and here's an article on the Storycon Summit Meeting he founded and organized for eight years.

Press coverage in the Wall Street Journal: Party's Left Pushes for a Seat at the Table

Talk Nation Radio interview by David Swanson: Rob Kall on Bottom-Up Governance June, 2017

Here is a one hour radio interview where Rob was a guest- on Envision This, and here is the transcript..

To watch Rob having a lively conversation with John Conyers, then Chair of the House Judiciary committee, click here. Watch Rob speaking on Bottom up economics at the Occupy G8 Economic Summit, here.

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