I think California’s electricity crisis should appropriately be called “shock therapy comes to California.” In converting the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe back into capitalist countries, they privatized and deregulated virtually everything, transforming these countries into their former, easily exploitable, Third World status.If Americans thought that the U.S. corporate empire would only impose these policies on foreign client-state governments, they were living in a dream world.The reason that the International Monetary Fund and World Bank forced Third World countries to cut back on public expenditures was to free up funds to repay foreign banks.Deregulation furthers this transfer of public money into private hands and does away with any pesky environmental restrictions. They are even trying to privatize the water supply in various countries.There is another beneficial effect of privatization for capitalists. Money flowing into public organizations has the effect of increasing citizen participation and feelings of empathy, compassion and solidarity.This can lead to unions or worse. They would rather have a passive, individualistic population of consumers concerned only about themselves or their immediate families.In the United States, there are efforts to privatize schools and social security. Corporations are not content with the billions of dollars in government subsidies and the military budget. They want all the public wealth.Gary Sudborough

Bellflower, Ca.