My Sometimes Conservative Wife Just learned How Privatization works.

[go west young man]

35. Towns across America have given away they're valuable recyclable material and resources.

This is who owns Waste Management. He's a multi-billionaire. Wayne Huizenga-Huizenga Holdings is an investment conglomerate that owns real estate, marinas, and marina-related companies, primarily in Florida. The company has increasingly been adding to its real estate holdings, which includes about a half-dozen marinas along Florida's Treasure Coast. Huizenga Holdings was founded by the aforementioned maverick entrepreneur, chairman H. Wayne Huizenga, the billionaire behind a few little ventures you may have heard of: AutoNation, Blockbuster, Waste Management, and Republic Services. Huizenga sold all but 5% of his stake in the Miami Dolphins football team in early 2009.

Waste Management basically comes into a town, tells the local government they will do it for less, the local government doesn't have to pay the wages or pensions, Waste Management cuts the wages in half, gets all the recyclable material just for the price of pick up and makes a fortune off it.

Adversely if local and state governments would do the recycling themselves.......they would make the fortune that could then be spent on social programs instead of Mr. Huizenga's yachts.

Part of the problem is that local governments are run by people with very little real intelligence or management experience. They just want to be in office, conduct a quick meeting or two, make the papers and go home. Thereby siphoning out all the work to companies like Waste Management and all the local resources in the process. They are literally giving away the farm.

Something similar has been happening on the local level with red light cameras. The companies come in, set up the cameras at no cost to the local government, the company keeps 80% of the revenue generated, adjusts the cameras and yellow light times to cheat drivers and create unsafe conditions at intersections, then the local government ends up with only 20% of the revenue generated.

If these local governments actually did the work themselves they'd keep all revenue and actually have money for social programs and improvements thereby making America a better place. Instead we continue to give it all to billionaires who have taken all their fortune from we the people for far too long. The tables need to turn.

I feel for this poor man who makes very little and is suffering because of greedy corporations like Huizenga's.