The “privatization movement” concerns the groups and individuals who want to take over public assets and services (redirecting cash flows to private sector companies and individuals).
Whether it’s “outsourcing” work, or handing the control/ownership of public assets to to private entities, neither have ever been shown to save taxpayers (consumers of those goods and services) money. To the contrary, most studies show that privatization is actually more expensive, less transparent, and more vulnerable to fraud and abuse…the myths about the “public sector” (propagated by these very same private enterprises), notwithstanding.
This is where the “anti-union” rhetoric is coming from: the middlemen/bloat in the private sector. It is not about saving taxpayers money, it’s not about shrinking government expenses or providing the same (or better) services for the same (or lower) costs. All of the studies to date — both from the private sector, and public sector, and everything in between — show that the government (with direct control and its own employees) is generally more efficient and less costly than privatization.
When you take into consideration the need for constant growth in the private sector, you’ll understand why the move toward privatization over the past few decades and the growth of “government” has been happening simultaneously.
