Marketing and branding the half million dollars for the Clark Park
redesign as "grants" worked very well for the plutocracy.
This technique is used a great deal in our empire to funnel taxpayer
money to connected organizations! The common people are always told to
shut up and rally to "win" these grants, as if citizens are cheering for
their hometown baseball team! But the park redesign would have been
seen as extreme pork, if it were honestly reported as taxpayer money!
Now that the Clark Park redesign actually sits in front of us, have
folks been thinking about how that half million dollars of taxpayer
money was spent???? It seems like a ridiculous cost, when you look at
the gravel pit and yellow grass.
However, if you remember that corporate universities take a 2/3 cut of
grant money, the cost of the redesign makes more sense! (The 2/3 cut
was publicly exposed with the "grants" for the upscale lighting on
Baltimore Ave. Those familiar with Penn grant formulas know this 60/40
ratio.)
I wish people would recognize that privatization always costs the
masses, who pay taxes, MORE AND GIVES THEM LESS. (The deadly corporate
health insurance system is a classic example.) Instead of the city
government controlling the park, layers of contractors and
subcontractors all extract more profits from the remaining 1/3 of all
available taxpayer monies.
Please look at the new Clark Park and think of how absurd a half million
dollars sounds! It doesn't matter if you see the redesign as
destruction or improvement.
Was the redesign worth half a million? Could half a million have been
more beneficial for basic maintenance in the neglected recreation
centers around the city? Do "market solutions" ever bring greater
efficiency for public needs at lower cost, or is that always a lie told
by those hungry for profit and power? Should grants really be thought
of as "free money?"
With open eyes,
Glenn
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