Monetization is Coming

Language matters! (4.00 / 3)

Can't we start calling this scheme by its rightful name?  It's really privatization, or what unions refer to as "contracting out" and corporations call "outsourcing."  The results are always the same--the loss of decent jobs, benefits, and pensions for working people, the potential for increased costs to consumers, and loss of accountability to and control by the public.  The sale or lease of our toll roads to some private company would be similar to the Defense Department's turning over so many military support functions to Halliburton (and look at the profits they're making).  The net result is a rip-off of the public and the further corporatization of public services.  (Think about the Medicare prescription program as another case in point.) 

A public road is a public asset, and its value is more than making money from collecting tolls.  No matter how  innocuous or harmless a term like "monetization" may sound, it's a euphemism which disguises its real purpose.  Orwell was right--language matters.  Please, let's start using words that don't disguise reality by couching it in vague terms that conceal its real meaning. 

"Do what you can, with what you have, where you are."  (Teddy Roosevelt)

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by: DottieG @ Fri Mar 23, 2007 at 06:01:40 AM UTC

Correct Language = The Rape of New Jersey (0.00 / 0)

Corzine will do anything to become President.  He is sacrificing New Jersey's future in so many ways, big and small.  The privitization of the public roads goes along with the stealth privitization of the New Jersey's higher education system (Corzine is starving the system of needed funds). 

There is no long term plan here.  Just a more sophisticated shell game.  But that's what the Wall Street team that is running the administration knows how to do.

Sorry to be frank, but that's the truth.  This team doesn't know how to build New Jersey up for a productive future.  It just knows how to cut spending and sell assets. It has no consistent political philosophy.

-pb.

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by: princetonblue @ Sun Mar 25, 2007 at 01:38:13 AM UTC

[ Parent ]

I Would Hate To Believe That You're Right... (0.00 / 0)

..on one level it sounds so cynical. I can't read his mind or know what's in his heart...Corzine seems like such a decent sincere fellow; I'm loathe to believe that I was conned.

Sadly, so far, I haven't see Jon Corzine willing/able to get up on his hind legs and "give em hell" on behalf of "the little people".

Your "take" may be correct. Though I'm not quite ready to give up on this guy...he just may be a very slow learner.

I do give him lots of credit for supporting Loretta Weinberg over the machine a while back.  That was a principled stand.

Either way, the importance of bringing progressive Democrats into office at every level becomes all the more critical. 

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by: Nick Lento @ Sun Mar 25, 2007 at 03:05:17 AM UTC

[ Parent ]

We've Been Conned!?! (1.00 / 1)

If this bone headed scheme is "pushed through" without some kind of public referendum/consensus...it will make the "Toilet Paper Tax" (that became an albatross around Jim Florios neck) look like a string of pearls.

Is Corzine a misguided do-gooder or a rapacious con man.

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by: Nick Lento @ Fri Mar 23, 2007 at 07:18:59 AM UTC

Yes, It's Unpleasant to Be Asking these Questions.... (0.00 / 0)

.....but so far, no one has made a compelling case for selling off the Turnpike. 

If enough people object to it; then it won't happen. That's called democracy.

If anyone out there has a problem with democracy; then you have a problem with me.

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by: Nick Lento @ Sun Mar 25, 2007 at 03:14:34 AM UTC

[ Parent ]

This is a Local, State, National and Global Problem (4.00 / 4)

Privatization is a problem that is affecting the world over. Schemes to privatize public services and assests have been pushed through all across the globe. It is now that we are seeing a greater attempt to do this in the United States.

Don't be fooled by any of the language. This is privatization at its worst. A little known fact is that Goldman Sachs is pushing for this throughout the country. They are acting in three roles - lobbyist, adviser, and investor.

Mark Florian, the chief operating officer of Goldman Sachs' municipal finance division, has visited over 35 statehouses nation-wide with hopes of pushing this through. This plan to privatize OUR roads is happening across the country. Plans to privatize roads has a green light from the Mary E. Peters, Secretary of Transportation, and the Bush Administration.

Goldman Sachs is pushing hard to get this passed. Is it any surprise that NJ would next on their radar as our Governor is an ex-CEO of Goldman Sachs. This should be raised and screamed out in the press. This is, in my honest opinion, an enormous conflict of interest. Dick Cheney is critized by Democrats and Liberals for his ties to Halliburton. Why is the same not being done with our Governor?

Another main problem with privatization schemes on this scale can be seen through two examples. In Toronto Canada, where a 67-mile road has been privatized, the company that owns the road sued the provincial government to force it to deny license plate renewals to motorists who have any outstanding tolls they haven't paid. The company won. So, this now means that the government acts as the enforcement officer for the company.

The other example, on a much larger scale, was the privatization of water services in Bolivia. Despite promises of increased service and cost savings, people saw their water bills triple. Protests erupted and the country was in turmoil. The President put the country under a state of martial law. Why? Because people of Bolivia wanted affordable drinking water. Finally the contract was broken and the public water system made public again. The company is suing Bolivia for breach of contract and profits lost. (Read more about it here.)

These plans to privatize roads stink of World Bank, World Trade Organization and International Monetary Fund "structural adjustment" programs that have decimated local control, environmental protections, labor rights, and democracy all across the globe. This is not good for NJ, the Country or the world. If we don't stand up to this now, we are doomed in the future because this is only step one to privatize all that is public.

If you want to read more about road privatization, check out The Highwaymen by Mother Jones magazine.

Now my friends, I am opposed to the system of society in which we live today, not because I lack the natural equipment to do for myself but because I am not satisfied to make myself comfortable knowing that there are thousands of my fellow men who suffer

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by: evdebs @ Fri Mar 23, 2007 at 14:28:05 PM UTC

Brilliant Informative Incisive Definitive Analysis!!! (0.00 / 0)

We have to get you to have a one on one with the good Governor!

And please, please, please post more often!

Don't be afraid of the "sharks" they're actually truthless.

;-)

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