The effort to turn public money, resources, and programs into gains for private interest has reached a fever pitch in the United States, resulting in an onslaught of efforts to plunder public lands.
After first establishing a footing in American politics in the 1970s, the neoliberal project to turn everything public into a money-making scheme for corporations and the wealthy has grown into an insatiable colossus, setting aside any pretext of benefiting the public through "trickle-down economics" and grabbing anything it can instead. The recent attempts by the U.S. Congress to sell off millions of acres of public land demonstrate the level to which this greed has risen.
We've certainly seen many strategies for turning things that belong to the public into windfalls for the rich. The undermining of public education with charter schools, many of which are controlled by hedge funds would be one example. The rush by the George W. Bush, Obama, Trump, and Biden administrations to sell off public lands for oil and gas exploration would be another. On a smaller scale, many municipalities have sold infrastructure and utilities to private companies, which pillage the resources and jack up prices on citizens.
Over the years, politicians from both the Republican and Democratic parties have become increasingly eager to facilitate this neoliberal plundering. The fervor exhibited during the recent attempt to sell off the public lands shows how rabid the supporters of this approach have become. Although this push was turned back, I doubt it will be last such effort.
With the greed of private interests so strong, supporters of the public good need to summon all their strength and defend what we have left.
