Paul Krugman: Prisons, Privatization, Patronage

Paul Krugman: "So let’s see: Privatized prisons save money by employing fewer guards and other workers, and by paying them badly. And then we get horror stories about how these prisons are run. What a surprise! So what’s really behind the drive to privatize prisons, and just about everything else? One answer is that privatization can serve as a stealth form of government borrowing, in which governments avoid recording upfront expenses (or even raise money by selling existing facilities) while raising their long-run costs in ways taxpayers can’t see." Read it here: