Roads, prisons, fire departments, water departments, emergency medical services, health services, parks, landfills, schools. Virtually every institution and service in America is being handed over to private firms. We used to walk down a public sidewalk to shop. Now we use private walkways in covered malls.
Privateers argue that privatization brings lower costs and higher efficiencies.
The evidence is mixed. In many areas, public firms are very competitive with private firms. Municipally owned electric utilities, for example, may be even more efficient than investor owned utilities. In Indianapolis, where public workers compete against private firms for city contracts, in a majority of cases the public workers have been the victors. Privateers offer many examples of where private firms provide services cheaper.