The Fox in the Henhouse: How Privatization Threatens Democracy [Paperback]

Privatization has been on the right-wing agenda for years. Health care, schools, Social Security, public lands, the military, prisons—all are considered fair game. Through stories, analysis, impassioned argument—even song lyrics—Si Kahn and Elizabeth Minnich show that corporations are, by their very nature, unable to fulfill effectively what have traditionally been the responsibilities of government. They make a powerful case that the market is not the measure of all things, and that a vital public sector is an indispensable component of a healthy democracy.Foreword by Troy Duster
Foreword by Amy Goodman
Preface: Who We Are, Why We Care
Introduction: A Road Map

PART I Public, It’s Ours; Private, It’s Theirs
Chapter 1 “Morning in America”?
Chapter 2 Drawing the Line: Private Versus Public Goods
Chapter 3 Introducing Corporations
Chapter 4 Forms of Privatization

PART II Privatization at Work
A Worst-Case Scenario: For-Profit Private Prisons
Chapter 6 Tracking and Backtracking Politicians
Chapter 7 Keep the Paying Guests Coming: Filling Up the Prisons
Chapter 8 We Love This Problem: Lives for Sale
Chapter 9 Don’t Fence Me In: Private Walls and Public Rights
Chapter 10 Privatizing Against Equality
Chapter 11 Minds for Sale
Chapter 12 Privatizing Social Security: A Case Study of Ideology, Strategy, Tactics

PART III The Great Divide
Chapter 13 The Two Cultures of the Twenty-First Century
Chapter 14 Appreciating the Public Sector
Chapter 15 A Fable, and a Fabulous True Story
Chapter 16 An Offer No Corporation Could Refuse

PART IV Freedom, Revolution, Progress
Chapter 17 The American Dream—Always at Risk
Chapter 18 Differing Visions, Conflicting Values
Chapter 19 “Trickling Down” into the 1980s and 1990s
Chapter 20 Methods That Affect Our Lives
Chapter 21 Resistant Strengths
Afterword: Returning Home, Remembls5