private, not government, leads to what?

It's not the best title, and as former ScienceBear wrote on her blog, it's been very busy and even when I have had the time to "save draft" with some thoughts and ideas I have obviously not done anything with it. So, today I'll try a new approach and just make a short post about something I read this morning in the paper. I think that if I link it, it's free for access....

The main problem I have with this, not surprising maybe since I grew up (and was groomed) in a country with a kind government that promises to take care of you and your family, might be that I like some things to be state driven. I don't view the government as evil per se and I might even like the State a little too much...  Then it's my background (PoliSci and philosophy) where there are some thoughts about "what are the minimum requirements for a state to function?" and "what are the responsibilities for the state towards the people?" among other things that pop up when I read these kind of articles.

Personally, I have a hard time with this "long term storage" of people. I don't really distinguish between being locked up in a hotel (nice) or "behind barbed wire in a camp" (not so nice). It's pretty obvious what kind of image the writer wants you to get, and in this case I would've liked not to have that image since it takes away the focus on the real problem imho. "Who is responsible, when the system was built with control functions for the state driven things (prisons for example) but now shifted into private driven things?"

(I'm sure the questions can be formulated way way better but I'm under time contraints...)

I mean, it scares the beejeezus out of me to think what would happen if I end up in one of those private run places since if something were to happen, as history and experience show, there is no system in place for accountability since "we are not responsible since we bought the service from them" and "we only provided the service they wanted to buy" ... and then go on and on and on since most likely you (the 'little people' as so famously said by BigCo CEO) don't have the money or resources to go to the legal system, which you wouldn't have had to if it was the state.... since that system is in place....

Not to mention what a waste it is to keep people locked up/detained without decisions for several years and leaving them in limbo. I mean, not only thinking of these people, but from "my view as a citizen", but how much money is thrown at these private companies to keep these people in a secure place and they need food and living space etc but won't be able to work or provide for themselves. Although, I guess having these detention centers with "have to work to be here" might be very obvious why these campscenters leave a bitter taste in my mouth. Then again, I am a huge proponent of calling a spade a spade and not spray rose scent on a wilted flower to make it seem nicer....

Only a few thoughts on a Thursday when I am staring at my assay C, which will have to be qualified and cleared for usage within too short a time and I am not really sure on how I will make it work since I do have some* other things to do as well....

*a few more projects with deadlines looming before Xmas. There's nothing like projects all converging at the same time, right?