The Privatization Of Everything | how America sold itself out

bnew

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The Privatization Of Everything | how America sold itself out



Channel Info Dasia Sade Subscribers: 219K subscribers

Description
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:

📷 IG - Instagram
🎵TT - TikTok - Make Your Day
📍PT. - https://www.pinterest.com/dasiadoes/
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📚 Resources & Further Reading
The Privatization of Everything by Donald Cohen and Allen Mikaelian

Public Citizen

In the Public Interest

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.

[teachthevote.atpe.org](https://teachthevote.atpe.org/Our-Blog/Latest-Posts/The-plan-to-defund-and-eliminate-public-schools#:~:text=stirring%20up%20social%20media%20debates,charter%20schools%20over%20public%20schools)

Alicia McKay (Jan 2024): “The public service has citizens, not customers” – blog post on the importance of citizen-centric governance.

[(The public service has citizens, not customers)

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.


#Privatization #PoliticalEducation #LateStageCapitalism #CivicLiteracy #DasiaSade
 
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bnew

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VEtEvnhziPM&lc=UgweAeGVaH13eqgXfxJ4AaABAg

@FromFireToAshes commented on Friday April 25, 2025 | Likes: 2

I completely agree that during the 60s the shift towards privatization was heavily influenced if not dominated by racism, but I also believe the cold war and post world war 2 hegemony of the US really cemented the shift. The Harley-Taft act (the eradication of unions protections) and mccarthyism really shifted this country hard towards the 5 companies in a trench it is now. Capitalism has been the blueprint and racism has been the praxis.
Also the part about the shift in language is such a good point. I never even batted an eye about the use of "Tax Payer" instead of citizen but now it feels obvious the shift that occurred.

Great video as always!!!
 

Vandelay

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If SS and M&M get privatized this country is donezo. Not because they're a part of the constitution, rather this country will be more beholden to private corporations rather than the government. And if I had to choose, I rather be beholden to the government because through voting you can change the process. Private companies we don't have a say.
 

TEH

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VEtEvnhziPM&lc=UgweAeGVaH13eqgXfxJ4AaABAg

@FromFireToAshes commented on Friday April 25, 2025 | Likes: 2

I completely agree that during the 60s the shift towards privatization was heavily influenced if not dominated by racism, but I also believe the cold war and post world war 2 hegemony of the US really cemented the shift. The Harley-Taft act (the eradication of unions protections) and mccarthyism really shifted this country hard towards the 5 companies in a trench it is now. Capitalism has been the blueprint and racism has been the praxis.
Also the part about the shift in language is such a good point. I never even batted an eye about the use of "Tax Payer" instead of citizen but now it feels obvious the shift that occurred.

Great video as always!!!

You mean: racism has been the blueprint and capitalism has been the praxis, right?


:jbhmm:
 

Scustin Bieburr

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You mean: racism has been the blueprint and capitalism has been the praxis, right?


:jbhmm:
Europeans didn't buy slaves and bring them to america to do the work they didn't want to do because they hated them.

I suggest reading Thomas Jefferson's correspondences with the French. They assumed that after America's independence, the slave owning 'founding fathers' would give up their slaves. Instead he bent over backwards to try to explain why black people shouldn't be free. He knew we were humans, he just enjoyed the convenience and money that slavery brought him. It's a story as old as time. When asked to make a choice between comfort and justice, people(especially wealthy whites) will do anything to maintain that comfort including playing dumb or creating pseudoscience. It was known by most europeans that black people were human. In fact england recruited black people as soldiers and sailors. And believe it or not, they were seen punishing white people.

When you have the working class divided by race, there's no need to worry about them ever asking the question of why some people have too much and they're barely able to make ends meet.
 
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TEH

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Europeans didn't buy slaves and bring them to america to do the work they didn't want to do because they hated them.

I suggest reading Thomas Jefferson's correspondences with the French. They assumed that after America's independence, the slave owning 'founding fathers' would give up their slaves. Instead he bent over backwards to try to explain why black people shouldn't be free. He knew we were humans, he just enjoyed the convenience and money that slavery brought him. It's a story as old as time. When asked to make a choice between comfort and justice, people(especially wealthy whites) will do anything to maintain that comfort including playing dumb or creating pseudoscience. It was known by most europeans that black people were human. In fact in england recruited black people as soldiers and sailors. And believe it or not, they were seen punishing white people.

When you have the working class divided by race, there's no need to worry about them ever asking the question of why some people have too much and they're barely able to make ends meet.
:whew:

We’re in so many bullshyt threads in TLR I forgot you were a spitter.

Rep

:ehh:
 

Afro

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A very good video.

This society is the opposite of freedom.

I like how she gives actionable things to do and think about towards the end.

"We always pay."
 

Gritsngravy

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Europeans didn't buy slaves and bring them to america to do the work they didn't want to do because they hated them.

I suggest reading Thomas Jefferson's correspondences with the French. They assumed that after America's independence, the slave owning 'founding fathers' would give up their slaves. Instead he bent over backwards to try to explain why black people shouldn't be free. He knew we were humans, he just enjoyed the convenience and money that slavery brought him. It's a story as old as time. When asked to make a choice between comfort and justice, people(especially wealthy whites) will do anything to maintain that comfort including playing dumb or creating pseudoscience. It was known by most europeans that black people were human. In fact england recruited black people as soldiers and sailors. And believe it or not, they were seen punishing white people.

When you have the working class divided by race, there's no need to worry about them ever asking the question of why some people have too much and they're barely able to make ends meet.
Didn’t the church or the pope or whatever also co-sign it to justify to they problem why they was doing Africans how they was doing them

And wasn’t it the same way with the natives
 
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