Author Archives: Sheila Kennedy

Report: Privatization drives inequality

A new study outlines the negative impact of contracting public services to private companies.

I am one of those tiresome academics who has repeatedly criticized so-called privatization of government functions. I say “so-called” because what Americans call privatization is no such thing. Actual privatization would require government to sell off or otherwise abandon a particular activity, and let the private sector handle it, much like Margaret Thatcher selling England’s steel mills to private-sector interests. Continue reading