One Man’s Revenues & Profits = Another Man’s Expenses & Taxes
If selling off a publicly-owned entity to the private sector is known as “privatizing,” doesn’t it stand to reason that when government takes over a private company, it should be known as “publicizing?”
Apparently not:
“In Boulder, Colo., climate-change activists have helped win two major victories at the polls in a fight to municipalize the current utility owned by Xcel Energy.”
–“Socialism, American-Style“; The New York Times (7/23/2015).
Of course, when the entity doing the taking over is the federal government rather than a city, the act is known as “nationalizing.”
Red States, Blue States — & Banana Republics
While such things are more commonly associated with South American banana republics, and are anathema to the (far) right, the NYT article notes that such classically “red” states as Texas, Nebraska, and Wyoming all have long-standing, sovereign (state) enterprises that variously collect (and disburse to residents) royalties on state-owned assets; generate electricity; and do a host of other things more commonly associated with the private sector.
Meanwhile, want just one example of a privatization “bust?”
For-profit prisons, which do what profit-maximizing entities do very well: increase revenues and — yup — profits.
Unfortunately for taxpayers, the mirror image of “revenues and profits” . . . are “expenses” and “taxes.”
