I didn't know about this privatization of our bridges. Did anyone?
We can be sure there are many more public infrastructures being secretly targeted in PA.
http://truth-out.org/news/item/21513-the-stealth-privatization-of-pennsylvanias-bridges
Excellent overview of privatization also at Truthout.org
http://www.truth-out.org/news/item/21466-costs-of-privatization-hidden-in-plain-sight
The discussions of privatization usually do a good job explaining the hidden traps to raid the public treasury in the future. But the inevitable decline of services and huge rises in fees also need to be highlighted.
The public is always told the opposite of the truth, when the political class demands the corporate privatization agenda. When I was in Chicago at the beginning of the privatized street parking, I had to pay $36 for less than 8 hours of overnight street parking!
Sometimes the fee rising is accomplished like on other corporate bills. If you think you will pay $39, you get a bill for $79 with a list of a dozen previously undisclosed undefined fees. When you complain, you are told that you were stupid and should have read the thousand pages of fine print, which they always downplay before the contract is signed. Another way to raise fees is to simply make you pay the fee more often.
There is a supreme universal law of privatization, that will always hit at a later time. Service will always go rapidly down, and fees will always rapidly increase whenever public utilities become a privatized monopoly. Monopolies of essential infrastructure provide unlimited opportunities for profit maximization! The Bolivian revolution erupted when many communities paid half of their meager incomes for drinking water.
So regressive taxes will always be increased because of privatization contracts. And taxpayers will be hit on the other end too, with poorer service and increased user fees. How will it effect lower class children, for example, when borrowing a library book about democracy will cost a $5 rental fee?
