Privatizing Risk

Some of the things that the US prides itself on is its freedom and safety, and when I read the article “The Privatization of Risk” by Craig Calhoun I was given a totally different view on how our government’s public safety incentives have become. The fact that these public institutions are using society’s vulnerabilities to advance in their own political and economic agendas is not why we should have them in the first place. An interesting thing about this trend with public institutions turning private is the fact that it has become a global policy. That got me wondering to what type of conditions cause these governments to change from public to private institutions. In this case (the US) we see a modern well to do society that is largely made by, for and of the people with good intentions and all in all encourages advancement. On the surface we have our Bill of Rights and Declaration of Independence which ensures our civil liberties but under the surface, we rely heavily on the government to keep us safe and with this dependence we fall in to a trap. The government sees a way to make use of these vulnerabilities by privatizing and making certain safeties exclusive to their own liking with hidden agendas. So after reading this article and today’s discussion in class I believe there is a trend to how a government starts to privatize risk. With an advancing society comes more freedom and with more freedom we need more safety, forcing us in to this endless cycle where we are given and then stripped away from our freedoms.

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