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Naomi Klein (author of Shock Doctrine) recently wrote up a brief article which is available HERE, courtesy of AlterNet.
In the article, Klein addresses the growing presence of privately operated emergency response services that cater only to those who can afford them. One such example is HelpJet, which offers it customers a “first class experience” as it shuttles them from an emergency (something like Katrina or SoCal wildfires) to a five star hotel in some far-away jet setting locale. Other companies offer services that range from the fire fighting offered by Firebreak to the “full spectrum” services soon to be offered by our friends at Blackwater USA.
While the operation of private prohibitively expensive emergency services doesn’t necessarily harm the state provided emergency services that are offered to all, it still creates a two-tiered system that offers superior protection to those who can afford it, while those who can’t are left with state-operated services that are often the victim of severe budgetary cuts.
In some cases, the privatization of services even usurps state provided services. For example, many on the ground in Iraq have said it would be impossible to continue operating there if not for private security like Blackwater USA.
Privatization of these kinds of life-or-death services takes us in a direction that brings both profit margins and the value of human lives into the same decision making processes. As with any other privately operated corporation, these emergency service companies’ ultimate bottom line will be one of financial gain, and not necessarily the value of human lives.
Klein ends her article,
The same pay-to-be-saved logic governs this entire new sector of country club disaster management. There is, of course, another principle that could guide our collective responses in a disaster-prone world: the simple conviction that every life is of equal value.For anyone out there who still believes in that wild idea, the time has urgently arrived to protect the principle.