The new carpetbaggers.

As economies all over the world go into recession governments everywhere are trying to cut expenditure. One way is by contracting out to private firms. This restricts spending to a finite amount and reduces government responsibility. Private firms work with contractual labor who cannot form unions, are paid the minimum amount possible and have no rights such as healthcare or pensions. When jobs are scarce people will take anything to survive but often such cost cutting results in poor quality of service, even death. This was amply demonstrated by the security firm, G4S which was given a contract by the British government worth 500 million pounds to provide 10,000 staff for security at the London Olympics. Trying to maximise profits G4S probably waited till the last minute to employ people and kept daily wages so low that it was unable to attract sufficient numbers of suitable people. Yesterday only 17 of 56 G4S staff turned up the Olympic team hotel in Salford in Greater Manchester and 4 of 58 staff turned up at Hilton Hotel in Tyne and Wear, one of whom then disappeared. The British government had to call up 3500 soldiers for Olympic duty and 19 police forces had to contribute officers. The opening ceremony for the games, costing 27 million pounds,has been shortened by half an hour. Created by Danny Boyle, of Slumdog Millionaire fame, it was to feature 10,000 performers, 70 sheep, 12 horses, 10 chickens, 3 cows, 2 goats, 3 dogs and 8 geese and is expected to be watched by 80,000 viewers and 16,000 athletes. In 2009 an aboriginal man died of heatstroke while being transported in a G4S van in Australia and in October 2010 a 46 year old Angolan man, Jimmy Mubenga died when he was restricted by G4S staff inside a British Airways flight while being deported from Britain. No one has been prosecuted. US private security firm Blackwater has been accused several times of shooting innocent people in Iraq and Afghanistan. Barclays Bank has just been fined $453 million for fixing Libor rates over many years and, even now, HSBC Bank is being questioned by the US Senate for allowing money laundering, between 2007-8, because of poor supervision. JP Morgan Chase has admitted to losing over $4 billion in trades of Credit Default Swaps at its London branch. Glaxo has just been fined $3 billion in the US, $1 billion in criminal fines for not reporting side effects of drugs and $2 billion in civilian fines for off label use of drugs on children. Companies resort to cutting corners to increase profits leading to increased shareholder returns which leads to millions of dollars in bonuses for managers. These are the new carpetbaggers. Only they are in suits and ties and real smooth.