Capitalist inefficiency:economic crisis hits worker's hard in Michigan as billionaires fight over a bridge

The Ambassador, once the world's longest suspension bridge

Right wing politicians throughout the US are talking of the need to run their city, country, state, more like a business.  The US is one big business.  The two parties of capitalism compete with each other every few years for whose turn it will be to rake in the dough and hand out favors to that section of the class it represents.  This model, the free market model is deemed as the most efficient way of organizing human social production.

In the US media and political life, the advantages of the private sector over the public are touted daily.  But we working people know this is nonsense.  Just considering the immense power, wealth and global reach of US capitalism and comparing that to the human satisfaction or happiness level we realize how inefficient the private sector is. It can’t even provide a quarter of its population with decent medical care which has led to the insane situation where most personal bankruptcies (people losing everything they have including credit ratings) are the result of someone getting sick.

Look at the situation with the Ambassador Bridge that connects Detroit (a city reduced to third world status by their beloved market) to Winsor Ontario.  The Ambassador handles one quarter of all truck freight between the US and its largest trading partner, Canada. Seven million vehicles a year use the bridge according to the Public Border Operators Association. Business Week reports that the close to 5.2 million hours in delays on the 81 year old structure cost Ford Motor Corp alone $13 .7 million in lost productivity in 2010.

There is an ongoing war between two representatives of the private sector over the building of a new “publicly owned” bridge that will compete with the Ambassador for traffic.  On the one hand we have billionaire trucking company owner Manuel Moroun who owns a controlling stake in the Ambassador.  In 1979 Moroun beat out another waster, Warren Buffet, for the right to own this vital public structure.  Meanwhile, Rick Snyder, Michigan’s Republican governor wants to build a new publicly owned bridge. 

Moroun and his son Matthew could lose out big time so they’ve spent $1 million on advertising trying to convince taxpayers that the governor’s plan will cost them dearly and he says he is willing to build a new six lane span next to the Ambassador at his own expense.  In other words, he would re-invest some of the millions he’s made form the transportation business and bridge fees in to keeping this goose that lays his golden eggs.

The Ambassador took in $81 million in 2004 and Moroun the son says that the competition of a new bridge would run them out of business.

Moroun is arguing (against a Republican governor) that this is an issue of the lone entrepreneur against “far reaching” government says Business Week and he’s got some help from the Koch brothers, the right wing oil billionaires who have funded much of the campaign against the public option.

The governor is trying to get state lawmakers to vote on the issue but it’s a bit difficult as Moroun gave over a half million dollars to state legislators in the 2010 election. It’s amazing how the corruption in US politics is spoken about so matter of factly, “These people respond to money” says one activist on campaign finance reform in the state. The best democracy money can but is right here.

The public project is supported by Labor naturally as well as some businesses but we can be sure that if this project gets off the ground, it will lead, like all public projects run by big business politicians, to lots of handouts, nepotism and graft as the contractors respond to an offer of this nature and get their snouts in the public trough. The main contractor will have to come up with the money apparently which means that the deal that will be struck will be a lucrative one we can be sure about that.

I'm just venting here but the point is that when we consider this small example of private sector waste their arguments about how efficient the private sector is falls flat.  An important issue of world trade is what we are talking about here.  Social infrastructure should not be owned by private individuals and run on a basis of profit no more than the commanding heights of the economy should. In this example alone we can count billions of wasted dollars.  Money pocketed by Moroun by charging fees for bridge crossings for 30 years.  The cost in production and distribution of goods by not upgrading this infrastructure and the cost of the war between competing sections of the private sector for who can profit from this social need.  Then there is the bribery of the politicians which goes on all the time.  The list is endless.

And public sector workers are a drain on the economy!