According to “Race to the Bottom: How Outsourcing Public Services Rewards Corporations and Punishes the Middle Class,” a new study from In the Public Interest, a think tank focused on how privatization affects the economy, the routine practice of outsourcing government functions is another important reason why the middle class is shrinking as those at the very top reap more and more of the fruits of our economy. To explain how that is — and why it’s important that people committed to economic justice push back against the practice — Salon recently spoke with ITPI research and policy director Shar Habibi. Our conversation is below and has been edited for length and clarity.

I think the general perception is that privatization/government outsourcing really kicked off under Reagan, so about 30 years ago. Is it still a problem today?

I think that 30-year time frame is correct in terms of when the idea really gained steam, but I would say, since the financial crisis in 2008, there have been a lot of cities and states that have had budget shortfalls and some financial stress, and private companies have been coming in and saying, “We can do this better, faster and cheaper; we can take over these services and run them for you.” Unfortunately, there’s really a growing body of evidence that these claims are untrue and that public services that have been outsourced are not running better, faster and cheaper. What our report specifically looks at is how government outsourcing degrades jobs and takes what were once middle-class jobs that supported families and turns them into poverty-level jobs.

What did you find when you examined privatization/government outsourcing?…

Read the entire article at One percent’s twisted new heist: What’s really behind privatization – Salon.com.

In this fiery and funny talk, New York Times food writer Mark Bittman weighs in on what’s wrong with the way we eat now (too much meat, too few plants; too much fast food, too little home cooking), and why it’s putting the entire planet at risk.

via ▶ Mark Bittman: What's wrong with what we eat? – YouTube.

What’s wrong with what we eat?

It’s so simple.

Don’t eat anything that comes from a factory – and that includes meat.

The food industry is bigger than the oil industry and every bit as corrupt and manipulative. If they had their way, all food would come in a box, filled with low-cost garbage ingredients, and marked up to the moon.

Thanks to their bribery and bullying that already describes the federal school lunch program. They stand ready to legally attack anyone who speaks the truth, even deep pockets celebrities like Oprah Winfrey who declared on her show she would never eat another hamburger and was sued by the cattle ranching industry for defamation.

It’s remarkably easy to avoid the personal health catastrophe that factory foods lead to: don’t eat them! It’s that simple.

~ TheRealFoodChannel.com