“The greater, darker, unforeseen consequences of privatisation are its corrupting effect on social fairness and opportunity more broadly. Corporations that acquire state assets depend on the election of governments with policies that will feed their business, rather than diminish it. It is in the interest of corporations that are paid to supply sub-contracted services to government projects, for example, to lobby hard against political parties mooting a return to better-paid, more secure, direct employment models. ... A powerful incentive to corruption, hard and soft, exists in the dynamics of these economic and political relationships. Big corporations have a direct interest in politics and the political system; their political donations reward those who promise them favourable conditions, and neither the community benefit nor the national interest comes into it.” Social JusticeNeoliberalismPolitical CorruptionPolitical InfluencePublic ServicesPolitical InterferencePolitical DonationsPrivatisation Of Public Assets Book:On Fairness Source: On Fairness
“There's now a worldwide industry of companies that offer rewards to political actors - politicians, lobbyist, think-tanks, activists - who show greater loyalty to maximising corporate profits than they do to principles of equality, let alone the public good. It's parasitic capitalism, and it's the economic model that the opponents of fairness prefer.” CapitalismEqualityFairnessNeoliberalismPolitical Influence Book:On Fairness Source: On Fairness