For those who don't know, the electric grid and all of our public utilities were built and maintained with taxpayer money. Then a GOP-controlled Congress 'deregulated' our utilities (signed by Bill Clinton), selling them to for-profit, private corporations.

Because these corporations are all about maximizing profits for shareholders, they won't put out the enormous amounts of $$ necessary to update the grid and all of our utilities. And the prices for these utilities running on ancient infrastructure goes up. And up.

While the quality of the 'product' (electricity, sewage, water, and now telecomm) gets worse and worse because the actual infrastructure deteriorates.

This was also what they did to healthcare, btw. It was once a public utility as well. Blue Cross was actually a nationalized health insurance. Until it was also 'deregulated.' It wasn't great, but it was a hell of a lot better and cheaper than what we have now.

We, the people, used to own our utilities and therefore had some say (via elected government) in its operation and pricing. Now we have no say at all. It's all about profit for a few mainly white men.

Ironically, this is a well-known tactic...of colonizers like the USA. They force countries to privatize public infrastructure in order to sell it off to American corporations that profit. American companies are colonizing...America.

"Austerity" was just a euphemism for a kind of capitalism/colonization that forces countries to privatize their utilities in order to make them vulnerable to capitalists, usually American or European corporations and banks. Google 'Structural Adjustment Programs.'

Yes, this was almost the focus of my PhD but I shifted to healthcare and the ways it's gendered/racist. I used to teach the history of colonization and the present of it (SAPs) to my Geography students.