I've been thinking about Social Security. As Demophoenix has blogged, Michael Kinsley has logically proven that privatization cannot work. That should end the discussion, but doesn't. So we need to think about the motives of the pirateers. Over to you, Prodigal Son.
Prodigal Son has pointed out that when you tell pirateers that you'll support their plan if they guarantee the principal, they begin to spit and sputter and stammer and whine like jocks at the end of a Revenge of the Nerds movie. Which should lay bare their true motives. And should end the argument.
Only it doesn't. So I'll throw in my two cents, even though I'll probably need those pennies when I'm a old man begging in the streets in 2055 in the United States of Bush.
I once worked for an agency that was piratized by the Emperor W-- the Texas Workforce Commission. Here are just a few things that happened after piratization:
- The first pirate company to take over our Workforce Center declared bankruptcy a few months after taking the contract.
- The second pirate company to take over our Workforce Center walked away from the contract at their first opportunity.
- The third pirate company to take over our Workforce Center fired a good friend of mine.
- Okay, maybe you're a bean counter who thinks it's a good thing that my friend was fired. Here's the problem in bean-counter friendly language: he was a frontline supervisor, dealing directly with clients. The layers and layers of Supervisors of Red Tape are still there.
- Bureaucracy actually increased, evidenced by more paperwork and more layers of supervisory personnel.
- Confidentiality became a joke. Pirate companys, including both current and former contractors, now have access to the work records of all Texans. Have you seen the ACLU video?
- Okay, they did adopt hip, new capitalistic lingo. Clients are now customers.
Yeah, yeah, I know this is just one isolated, anecdotal example. I'm sure the President's Social Security plan will work much better.
May I have my two cents back?
SPACEDARK
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