An interesting perspective on the private sector contracting of public jobs and its cyclical effect on the Welfare State it proposes to reduce. "National Employment Law Project (NELP), a non-partisan nonprofit that focuses on issues affecting low wage and unemployed workers, reports that every year the federal government awards private companies half a trillion dollars for contracts for goods and services: Privatization advocates tell the public that outsourcing government jobs to the private sector is good business and an efficient use of taxpayer dollars. Policymakers argue that when private firms compete for public contracts, market forces will prevail, and the government will get the goods and services it needs at the best possible prices. But in fact, this “free market” system leads to a bookkeeping sleight-of-hand: Low-road contractors pay poverty level wages and provide no benefits for their employees, who then rely on food, housing, healthcare, and childcare subsidies from government agencies. Thus, the real costs of goods and services purchased under federal contracts are hidden, as are the thousands of workers who are trapped within this broken system." Would the free market ever regulate the free market?
Posted on: Tue, 23 Jul 2013 13:15:04 +0000
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