Klein in the News

With the recent events in Haiti it was only a matter of time before private contractors would try to enter in and make their mark. In this article it explains how governments create summits so that private corporations can try and win contracts within distraught places. Similar situations can be traced back to Iraq as well as New Orleans. Now that Haiti needs to be rebuilt, businesses are jumping at the chance to try and get a piece of the action.

Naomi Klein discusses this in The Shock Doctrine as disaster capitalism. Klein explains this as when massive disaster occurs and businesses use it as an opportunity to cash in on the circumstances. However, the people that are often suffering in these situations feel much different and don’t want their lives replaced with something new. Klein explains,

“Most of the people who survive a devastating disaster want the opposite of a clean slate: they want to salvage whatever they can and begin repairing what was not destroyed; they want to reaffirm their relatedness to the places that formed them” (Klein 10).

From this we can see that often people don’t want to start over, they just want to repair the aspect of the lives that they can. I believe that trying to force people to start over just makes them suffer more and feel and even larger disconnect to the place that they used to call home. They want to continue to try and control the small parts of life that they still can in these situations and when contractors come in and tear everything down and start all over, these people just feel more lost and hurt. Thus, maybe the better thing to do for Haiti is not try and start fresh, but try and help these people reclaim a place that once felt like home so that it may be able to again.

Friedman in the News

We discussed earlier in the week our frustrations with parking in the city and as a city driver myself, I consistently feel this annoyance. Chicago has just installed in many places meters where it costs $1.25 to park for an hour as well as expensive parking garages where it can cost anywhere from $10-$50. The Chicago Tribune discusses how other States may follow suit after the success Chicago has had after privatizing much of their parking. The Tribune explains since this change “Chicago reaped an upfront payment of $564 million for its parking garages in 2006, and about $1.2 billion upfront for its parking meters a year ago” (Uribe). These meters and parking garages are run by Morgan Stanley and have helped Chicago fill some of the holes where the budget has thinned.

This is Friedman at his finest. As a firm believer that what the market place can take care of, it should is exactly what Chicago is doing here with their parking garages and meters. Friedman preaches privatization and it shows that it works. Though we may not want or like to pay for parking often it becomes a necessary evil after circling to find that free spot for 35 minutes. Chicagoans, as well as their visitors, have grown to accept that to find parking in Chicago one must pay for parking in Chicago. However, we have proven that Chicago parking is a business with a high demand and a low supply, therefore, it will continue to make profit and take the money of the public and proceed to give it towards the private businesses that own it.

Though I am one of those people that have to pay for this ridiculous parking where someone is more than likely to hit or scratch my car anyways, I understand it is a gold mine. I am interested to hear your thoughts though, should we be paying for parking? Should it be privatized? How else may this problem be resolved?