The Public Good, Bad Policies, and Tough Times: When Profit and Public Interests Collide

Author(s)/Creator(s)

Austin McNeill BrownFollow
Shannon M. MonnatFollow

Description/Abstract

Privatization of public goods maximizes corporate profits while providing minimal benefits or protections to public health. When calamities such as infectious disease pandemics, natural disasters, and severe weather strike, privatized systems often fail to respond adequately. This issue brief describes how privatization of public goods undermines public health, damages public trust, and erodes democracy and provides suggestions for how we can rethink policies to value people over profits instead of valuing profits over people.

Accessible Version

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Document Type

Issue Brief

Keywords

privatization, public service, privatized system, public health

Disciplines

Public Health | Public Policy

Date

2-23-2021

For More Information

Access the research brief series here.

Acknowledgements

The authors would like to thank the Lerner Center Staff for providing feedback, edits and preparations for publication of this article.

Recommended Citation

McNeill Brown, Austin and Monnat, Shannon M., "The Public Good, Bad Policies, and Tough Times: When Profit and Public Interests Collide" (2021). Population Health Research Brief Series. 121.
https://surface.syr.edu/lerner/121

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.