America is a capitalistic economy, meaning citizens have financial freedom and near unlimited private ownership. This allows for people all around the planet to seek financial opportunity in a wealthy and globally competitive country. However the philosophy of capitalism is not without its flaws, privatization of governmental services leads to human well fare being overlooked in the face of financial interest. With services ranging from social work with at risk children to the housing of our prison population, everyone in and around these services is being impacted or knows someone who is being impacted by the injustices of a for profit system which by nature, is putting the interest of the company’s bottom line before anything else.

This becomes a problem when human lives are involved and it’s sustained by the policy makers who perpetuate a corrupt system through lobbying or through the private contractors mishandling and disregarding the well being of its clients by cutting corners in every way possible to ensure profit. Improper training, lack of pay, and little to no outside supervision or regulation all lead to negligent and worse outcomes for the people who are hoping and should be benefiting from these services.

One example of how the government hiring private contractors to manage governmental services leads to ill outcomes counterproductive to the interest of American citizens is the case of Gabriel Fernandez. The story of Gabriel shook the country as he was essentially a poster boy shedding light on the injustices of child abuse and the negligent behavior of the private companies who essentially perpetuated his death by not stepping in and taking action on his behalf. There are several instances where people have claimed in the docu series about his life and eventual death to have filed reports in favor of an investigation of some sort to protect Gabriel by placing him out of harms way. In one instance a worker simply denied to push forward on filing a report after a coworker had informed her of the potential abuse of Gabriel. She had decided that since it was Friday and the company Maximus, which was employing these people, was said to not wish to pay overtime, she simply dropped the claim together. Leaving this poor little boy and many like him in similar circumstances to fall through the cracks as a result of a spanning problem between the companies, not treating workers fairly resulting in poor work quality and ethics which then leads to citizens not getting the services they deserve.

This is just one example in a laundry list of others which must be corrected immediately in order to best serve the interest of the American people. Yes we are a capitalist society in America but that doesn’t mean we should value a currency which is relative in value over that of a human life with which no amount of money can bring back. Privatization of governmental services cannot be aloud if we as a nation wish to put the interest of our fellow citizens as a top priority.