The Privatization Of Everything | how America sold itself out

If you’ve ever paid to park at a public park, this one’s for you. Shall we yap about the hollowing out of America? What happens when your water, schools, prisons, and even democracy itself get put up for sale? In this video, we explore the Privatization of Everything—how public goods in the U.S. have been quietly handed over to private interests, and why that transformation has made your life more expensive, less fair, and harder to navigate. From public education to the Texas power grid, from water in Flint to for-profit healthcare—we break down how we got here, who’s benefiting, and what it means to be a consumer citizen in late-stage capitalism.' 0:00 - Intro: The Last Free Thing in America 2:21 - Part One: What Is a Public Good? 7:06 - Part Two: A Very Brief History of Privatization 11:50 - Part Three: The Rise of the Consumer Citizen 15:58 - Part Four: Public-Private Takeover 50:36 - Part Five: The Slow Coup 1:04:06 - Are all PPP Bad? Case Study 1:10: 25 - Conclusion: The Price of Selling Ourselves Perks Access: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC8_P14XzTUxP93hXPyZnGbg/join 📷 IG - https://www.instagram.com/dasiadoesit/ 🎵TT - https://www.tiktok.com/@dasiadoesit 📍PT. - https://www.pinterest.com/dasiadoes/ --- 📚 Resources & Further Reading The Privatization of Everything by Donald Cohen and Allen Mikaelian Public Citizen: [https://www.citizen.org](https://www.citizen.org) In the Public Interest: [https://www.inthepublicinterest.org](https://www.inthepublicinterest.org) Eliza Relman, “Andrew Cuomo Says States Are Outbidding Each Other and Raising Prices for Critical Coronavirus Medical Supplies,” Business Insider, March 23, 2020; Rachana Pradhan, “Why the Hunt for Ventilators Was a Mess—and Why It’s Not Over,” Daily Beast, June 14, 2020; Katherine Eban, “ ‘That’s Their Problem’: How Jared Kushner Let the Markets Decide America’s COVID-19 Fate,” Vanity Fair, September 17, 2020; Katherine Eban, “ ‘We Think the Markets Will Sort It Out’: Could White House Action on COVID Testing Have Saved the American School Year?,” Vanity Fair, December 16, 2020 Milton Friedman, “The Role of Government in Education,” in Economics and the Public Interest, ed. Robert A. Solo (New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press, 1955). 3. Milton Friedman, “The Social Responsibility of Business Is to Increase Its Profits,” New York Times Magazine, September 13, 1970; Friedman, Flavia Chen, *Belfer Center*: Analysis of public health funding neglect and fragmentation. [belfercenter.org](https://www.belfercenter.org/publication/whats-stake-privatization-public-health#:~:text=,have%20begun%20to%20atrophy%20over) Eduardo J. Simoes et al., 2023: Study linking 20 years of public health disinvestment to COVID-19 failures.[pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov](https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC9724501/#:~:text=The%20COVID,USPHS%20to%20prevent%2Fcontrol%20the%20epidemic) Tim Walker, NEA (Oct 2024): Report on Project 2025’s plans to cut education funding, including eliminating Title I and Head Start. [nea.org](https://www.nea.org/nea-today/all-news-articles/how-project-2025-would-devastate-public-education#:~:text=The%20Center%20for%20American%20Progress) Heather Sheffield, Teach the Vote (Jul 2024): Op-ed on how Project 2025 would defund public schools via vouchers and DOE elimination. Alicia McKay (Jan 2024): “The public service has citizens, not customers” – blog post on the importance of citizen-centric governance. Elizabeth Arens reviewing L. Cohen: Discussion of “citizen consumer” vs “purchaser consumer” ideals in postwar America. Reuters (Dec 15, 2023): Data on foreign ownership of U.S. farmland (43.4 million acres, 3.4% of ag land). Smithfield Foods (Wikipedia): Details on WH Group’s 2013 acquisition of Smithfield and its U.S. farmland, the largest Chinese takeover of a U.S. firm. Samuel Barradas, TruckersReport (n.d.): Example of foreign company (Cintra) leasing U.S. toll roads, Indiana Toll Road tolls doubling under private control. Karl Bode, Techdirt (Nov 7, 2024): On telecom lobbying leading 16 states to ban municipal broadband, blocking community internet efforts. Josh Israel, *The Michigan Independent* (Aug 16, 2024): On pharmaceutical lobbying – Medicare Part D (2003) prohibiting price negotiation was an industry-backed clause, and repeated blocking of negotiation until 2022. [michiganindependent.com] DeSmog (Sept 14, 2021): Reporting on oil industry lobbying to kill methane emission fees, illustrating how fossil fuel companies block climate policy. On Medicare: IG: @caringacrossgen Twitter: @CaringAcrossGen Facebook: Caring Across Generations Families Over Billionaires IG: @taxwarroom BlueSky: @taxwarroom #Privatization #PoliticalEducation #LateStageCapitalism #CivicLiteracy #DasiaSade