Privatization Has Always Been A Scam: Trump's And Musk’s Plan To Loot America

Disaster, Corruption And Inequality Are The Hallmarks Of Privatization

I was the CEO of a division of TimeWarner at one time. I did my best to be a benevolent, responsible CEO. Many of my peers at other companies weren’t nearly as benevolent or responsible. But I have to be honest about efficiency. My company was far more efficient than most government operations I’ve come in contact with. I often say if any of the people who worked at TimeWarner worked at the level of efficiency that most workers I’ve run across in governmental departments, they would be fired... and fast. Or maybe they would have been better trained or better paid— they make a fraction of what people in private enterprise make. There are exceptions, of course. Ted Lieu’s chief of staff, Marc Cevasco, could have run any department in private enterprise. Same for Raul Grijalva’s chief of staff, Amy Emerick. But one thing always shocks me— even most of the absolute best Members of Congress more often than not end up with absolute incompetents working for them, holding back their careers, frustrating their plans… likely to be able to last less than a week in private enterprise.

That said, a lot has to do with, again, the benevolence and sense of responsibility of the CEOs and leadership teams. Sometimes that’s high. Other times— well, think Donald Trump, think Elon Musk. So for DOGE to be firing, willy nilly, tens of thousands of random government employees, labeling them all terrible and corrupt, is horrifying, especially since it is all being done with privatization as the ultimate goal. How could I say this after what I just wrote? Privatization isn’t about efficiency— it’s about looting. The entire concept is a scam, a Trojan horse that allows favored billionaires and their cronies to siphon public resources into private pockets while providing worse services at higher costs, a core aspect of a kleptocracy. Yes, government bureaucracy can be inefficient, but that inefficiency pales in comparison to the outright predation of privatized systems.

Private enterprise can operate with ruthless efficiency— because it’s built to maximize profits, not necessarily to provide quality services or protect the public interest. When that model is applied to government functions— healthcare, education, infrastructure— the results are, more often than not, disastrous. Look at what privatization has done to the prison system, turning incarceration into a billion-dollar industry where keeping people locked up is more profitable than rehabilitating them. Look at the military-industrial complex, where private contractors charge taxpayers obscene amounts for services that used to be done in-house for a fraction of the cost. And now, we’re watching the same grift play out under the guise of “draining the swamp”— and by the biggest swamp creatures to ever grab the reins of power. Trump and his enablers want to fire tens of thousands of career government employees— not because they’re inefficient, but because they stand in the way of full-scale looting. The goal isn’t better governance; it’s power consolidation. It’s turning every government function into a patronage system, where only loyalists and corporate donors control the levers of the state.

There are bad workers in government, just as there are bad workers in private enterprise. The difference? In government, the failures are visible and accountable to the public. In private corporations, they’re hidden behind NDAs, golden parachutes and stock buybacks. The myth that privatization is a panacea needs to die— because in reality, it’s a weapon for dismantling democracy and selling it off to the highest bidder.

Yesterday, a quartet of Washington Post reporters wrote that the Trump-Musk regime is on the way towards privatizing every government service they can, from mail delivery to foreign aid. Musk’s “slash-and-burn approach… is paving the way for a new shift to the private sector, reducing the size and power of the federal bureaucracy in a real-world test of the conservative theory— a version of which is also widely popular in Silicon Valley— that companies are better than government at saving money and responding to people’s needs… At the Interior Department, Secretary Doug Burgum has proposed allowing private developers to build on federal lands across the West. And in his first public address as treasury secretary, former hedge fund manager Scott Bessent vowed to ‘reprivatize the economy.’ Businesspeople and policymakers close to the administration are stepping up with additional proposals.”

The military contractor Erik Prince has pushed to turn over defense and immigration enforcement functions to private security firms, at one point pitching U.S. officials on a plan to execute operations in Africa, according to three people with knowledge of the idea, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to reflect private conversations. CNN reported that Prince also has floated the use of private military contractors to carry out operations against Houthi rebels in Yemen.

And the Heritage Foundation’s Project 2025 strategy paper— which was spearheaded by Trump adviser Russell Vought before he returned to the White House as budget director— proposed to “fully commercialize” forecasting at the National Weather Service…

Traditional Republicans have long argued that private companies can do a better job of managing government services than civil servants. But Musk and his Silicon Valley associates want to push the idea much further than the mainstream GOP. At a Morgan Stanley technology conference this month, Musk said the government should privatize “everything we possibly can.”

The tech crowd argues that entrenched corporations that historically have benefited from government largesse are as much a problem as government itself. They say “scrappy builders” from the tech industry— along with a leaner start-up mindset and superior technology— can rework government processes wholesale, rather than merely outsourcing the same work.

Large companies, including Oracle, Microsoft, IBM and ServiceNow hold billions of dollars in contracts to service software and programs DOGE is now axing. Those firms have seen share prices slide significantly, suggesting that the Trump administration’s privatization efforts could be a double-edged sword, helping some companies while hurting others and adding to stock market volatility.

“It’s peak uncertainty right now,” said an analyst familiar with private software companies who work with the government, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak publicly. Public software companies “are trading way low because of the fear of exposure from DOGE— that all these contracts could be rightsized or canceled if DOGE is as successful as it wants to be.”

… [One critics said] “What people like Elon Musk and Donald Trump don’t seem to realize is that the whole point of the public sector is to provide essential human goods without being constrained by shareholder profit demand.”

With his background in dealmaking, Trump has long praised the skills of business leaders, arguing that wealthy people are good for society. He has flaunted his relationships with some of the nation’s richest and most powerful executives in a manner that has broken norms, calling Musk a “genius” and hosting a parade of CEOs at his Mar-a-Lago mansion.

Trump, of course, is the apex personification of corruption, so of course, he sees no fault at all in the drawbacks to what Musk and Vought are trying to accomplish. And let’s not forget that “George W. Bush proposed to privatize parts of the Social Security system, but abandoned it amid strenuous bipartisan opposition.” And now Trump is back for another bite of the apple. Dan Pfeiffer reminded his readers that Señor Trumpanzyy “ran putatively to the Left of his party on Social Security. Where previous Republicans talked about privatization and raising the retirement age, Trump pledged to protect Social Security at all costs. In the 2024 primary, he destroyed the once-promising (but perhaps always doomed) candidacy of Ron DeSantis by attacking him for wanting to cut Social Security. It was all bullshit. Trump, Elon Musk, the DOGE-bags, and the billionaires in Trump’s Cabinet are coming for your Social Security. They may not be doing it in the traditional ways of George W. Bush and Paul Ryan, but make no mistake; they are trying to destroy Social Security [which Musk insists is a Ponzi Scheme’].”

If Josh Weil and Susan Crawford win in Florida and Wisconsin tomorrow, Trump’s plans to privatize Social Security are dead, not because of what Weil and Crawford can do to stop him but because Republicans in Congress will start thinking about finding jobs in private enterprise if they vote for it. But, wrote Pfeiffer, “Trump won’t propose a big Social Security privatization plan. Congressional Republicans won’t take a vote to cut benefits or raise the retirement age. Instead, Trump and Musk intend to disable the program from the inside. They are attempting to make Social Security seem so broken and rife with fraud that it should be dismantled.” If Trump loses in Florida and Wisconsin tomorrow though, congressional Republicans may well join Democrats in thwarting those plans. “Social Security cuts are people’s top concern about Elon Musk and DOGE in a recent poll from Blueprint, with 64% reporting concern about possible cuts. This is an urgent fight. Democrats created Social Security and we have continued to defend it. Social Security is at the core of the Democratic identity, but we have lost critical ground to Trump. A post-election report from Blue Rose Research found that 2024 voters trust Trump more than Democrats on Social Security. This finding should alarm every person working in Democratic politics. If we lose Social Security, we lose full control of our brand. We must find the tallest mountain top and start screaming. This is a winnable fight, but we have to start understanding and educating on what Trump is really up to.”

And, in case you missed this 1964 TV campaign ad the last time we ran it... it's worth watching and thinking about how applicable it is to today's situation, over 6 decades later. Those conservatives never give up when they smell cash!