In her new book, “Profit of Privatization,”(Fascion Press, $29.95 or company script, 343 pps) the conservative Becky Rishlim writes of a modern utopia in which the tyranny of unions and local and national government has been replaced by the benevolence of corporations. No one can deny the timeliness of this tome. In today’s CDT, for example, there were two articles about privatization: the first about selling the State owned liquor stores; and, the second about the clearly unexpected consequences of slashing the budget for public schools— the subsequent layoffs of State employees. This is, of course, just the tip of the iceberg, illustrating how a seamless merging of corporate and government function may proceed. Ms. Rishlim (the thinly disguised amalgam of Rush Limbaugh and Glen Beck) presents the case for complete corporate control—with the profit motive providing the “AynRandian” fostering of the common man. He, she, or they argue that we place a heavy burden on common people by forcing them to find suitable work, housing and markets for their needs, considering their ever declining education and training. They suggest that well-being would be better provided by company run housing, stores, education and medical care. Security could be easily provided by identifying employees and their families by innocuous numerical tattoos and by fencing in—with the newly learned anti-immigration technology, the corporate cities of the future.
Becky suggests a simple start to the inevitable process. We must stop calling our corporate heads, CEO’s, which somehow has acquired a negative connotation. She suggests we try, “Dear Leaders.”