How Government "Contracting Out" Drives Up Costs, Pushes Down Workers

http://smirkingchimp.com/thread/dave-johnson/56244/how-government-contracting-out-drives-up-costs-pushes-down-workers

How Government "Contracting Out" Drives Up Costs, Pushes Down Workers
by Dave Johnson | June 5, 2014 - 8:07am

When a government “contracts out” – privatizes – one of its services, that is supposed to save taxpayers money. A new study finds that privatization not only costs governments more than it saves, it has forced millions of people into lives of poverty.

According to the study by In The Public Interest called “Race to the Bottom: How Outsourcing Public Services Rewards Corporations and Punishes the Middle Class,” privatization of government services “contributes to the decline of the middle class and the rise in poverty-level jobs, thereby exacerbating growing economic inequality.”

Since the 1980s and 1990s mass-scale privatization of government services has pushed millions of people into a “race to the bottom” cycle of poverty and added considerable stress to local, state and federal budgets.

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Now, take this to a national scale. For decades cities, counties, states and the federal government have been “contracting out,” privatizing government services to “save money.” How many people have been pushed out of secure, good-paying, middle-class jobs with good benefits and pensions and into low-wage “temp” or independent contractor jobs with no benefits at all? How is this good for our country, our economy and most of all how is this good for We the People?