I've been listening through Bill Moyer's archives all day while cleaning the house...  This clip of his interview with Benjamin Barber really caught my attention.  I said to myself, "Oh yeah, he's talking about Privatized Gains (ie, Greenwich, CT) and Socialized Risk (ie, the Cross-Bronx Expressway in the South Bronx) -- very true, of course, as we've all learned with AIG, Bear Stearns, etc..."  Then I noticed the date of the interview:

December 21, 2007.

After the Credit Collapse in August 2007, but before even some of the most pessimistic economists...  But he's not an oracle or a prophet -- he's "just" a social scientist/theorist!  :)  And a good citizen because he's paying attention, and asking the right questions.  (Man, I appreciate insights like this...)

BILL MOYERS: But isn't all of this [Rampant Consumerism/Debt] part of what keeps the hamster running? I mean, it--

BENJAMIN BARBER: -- It is. But part of the problem here is that the capitalist companies have figured out that the best way to do their job is to privatize profit, but socialize risk. That is to say--

BILL MOYERS: What do you mean?

BENJAMIN BARBER: --ask the taxpayer to pay for it--

BILL MOYERS: Yes.

BENJAMIN BARBER: --when things go down. The banks now that have just screwed up so big, not one of those banks is going to go under because they'll be bailed out by the feds. 'Cause the feds, the federal government will say we can't afford this gigantic multi billion dollar bank to go under. Happened with Chrysler 20, 30 years ago.  [Barack put an end to this last week, as long as the Chapter 11 process goes quickly, that is...]

BILL MOYERS: Got to keep the wheel going.

BENJAMIN BARBER: And, therefore, it's impossible to fail if you're a business. You never get punished. Now the whole point of profit is to reward risk. But what we've done today is socialize risk. You and I, and all of your listeners out there, pay when companies like sub-prime market mortgage companies and the banks go bad. We pay for it. They don't.