Description
This book was published in Italian in 2013 and shows relentlessly how public services in Switzerland have been dismantled and transformed into private and public limited companies; these processes have been carried out in successive waves of liberalization and privatization. The result of privatization is an enrichment of the rich at the expense of the people; it brings an exponential increase in precarious jobs, it devalues users to customers - i.e. fools -, threatens democracy and frames juicy profits for the shareholders, the speculators. A veritable social and economic plunder has been installed by the economists, businessmen and politicians. It has been legitimized by an ideologized discussion of "economic freedom" and by dogmas such as "free, undistorted competition", the "market" or "competitiveness".
"The examples selected by Graziano Pestoni from history illustrate very well the reasons for numerous public decisions in Switzerland and elsewhere; the role of the state has been reduced and the importance of high finance in the market economy increased. The analysis brings to light the mistakes made by the national economy over the last thirty years and gives the reader the tools to understand the real reasons for the growing social unease among certain sections of the population. Politicians and citizens will find in this work answers to many important questions concerning stability and national cohesion." (Sergio Rossi)
Graziano Pestoni is a graduate of the sciences économiques de l'Université de Lausanne, he was responsible for the VPOD trade union from 1978 to 2006 and a former member of the Grand Council (cantonal parliament) of Ticino, secretary of the Association for the Defense of Public Service. He was entrusted with tasks at national and European level, in particular with public service issues. He is the author and co-author of numerous publications on public service issues.
