Effects of Public and Private Sectors

By Alvin Codner:

April 15, 2018

How Conflict Between Sectors Affects Nonelites:

Throughout the years, organizations within the public sector and private sector have had their effects upon each other, but the most impactful effects are the ones applied to the nonelites in our society. In today's world, we commonly see opposite organizations in controversial realms such as democrats vs. republicans, for-profit businesses vs. non-profit organizations, lower/middle class vs. upper class, government organizations vs. corporate companies, and etcetera. Even though certain organization’s tactics and notions affect others, no matter what organization benefits at the moment…nonelites almost always are affected the most. This essay will present key results when public and private sectors clash, depict the major effects some organizations…from each sector…has on nonelites, and display how top elites or the “elite class” of each sector play a vital role on how much nonelites are impacted whether in a negative or positive way.

Defining the Terms:

Before we get deep into the topic, let's first briefly describe and define the four main terms that will be used throughout the essay…which are public sector, private sector, elite, and nonelite. The public sector consist of organizations controlled by the core government on all levels (local, state, federal), publicly funded agencies, public enterprises, some state businesses, and some public contractors (Dube & Danescu, 2011). Secondly, the private sector is basically every organization not controlled by the government. The private sector consist of sole proprietors, partnerships, small/medium-sized businesses, large corporations such as fortune 500 companies, professional/trade associations, and trade unions ("privacysense.net," 2016). Thirdly, in general terms, if you are considered “elite” then that means you are amongst the crème de la crème or superior within a specific task or group. When it comes to modern organizations, there are various levels, definitions, and versions of the term “elite”, which we will explore later throughout the essay. Forth and finally, the term nonelite is basically the exact opposite of elite…a person(s) who is not actively amongst the “elite” group. Nonelites are usually the ones who aren’t in power or control of a number of events that occur to them and their environment. Now that terms have been elaborated, let’s get into what happens to nonelites when the private sector and public sector clash and or don’t see eye to eye.

Since both sectors are very broad and vague topics to cover everything that consist in them, this essay will present several examples from major organizations in each sector that has the substantial impact on the nonelites. No matter what sector an organization is in…the constituents always trickles down nonelites. When organizations within sectors get tied up in controversy they tend to forget about the overall impact they are having on the nonelites. Let’s use an example of how elites in private organizations affected nonelites.

Big Corporations vs. Government Agencies:

Starting off with probably the most noticeable feud happening in the United States till this day, which is between big corporations in the private sector and agencies within the government (public) sector. These two entities consistently go through battles against each other for supposedly the public’s interest but… the public (nonelites) are usually the ones who get the worse impact from the battle. According to Liz Kennedy “America faces a crisis of corporate capture of democratic government, where the economic power of corporations has been translated into political power with disastrous effects for people’s lives” (Kennedy, 2017, para. 1). The conflict occurs when the government is overpowered by corporations, due to, what most people call the root of all evil…money. Money distribution and allocation plays a vital role in any economy but the people in control of the money plays an even bigger role. For instance, big time corporation leaders save and grow their funds by avoiding certain laws by set by the government. According to Vexen Crabtree:

• “Modern large corporations can outmaneuver governments and therefore evade the law. If one country tightens up quality control, industrial regulation or raises employee benefits, modern companies can easily move production abroad. Governments are under pressure to not improve legislation. The heads of large companies have massive power over staff, employment, industry, national economies and the environment and yet are not elected nor publicly accountable for their actions (which are sometimes damaging to large numbers of people).

”(Crabtree, 2006, para. 1)

When this happens…nonelites get affected the worse. While the government is attempting to set regulations for organizations in the private and the public sector, organizations begin to avoid obeying those laws by moving jobs outside of the country…which lead to the working class (nonelites in this case) left suffering while being unemployed.

In another instance, even when nonelites assumes justice would be served in their favor at the supreme court level, they tend to get let down if the big businesses and corporations are involved in the case. In the recent presidential terms, the Chambers of Commerce (usually a local association that supports business interest within a community) won 11 out of 15 cases against them at the supreme court level (Winkler, 2017). In one of the cases, the supreme court sided with the Chamber of Commerce and came to a verdict that “debt-collection companies do not engage in a false, deceptive or unfair practice by filing stale, unenforceable claims against a person in bankruptcy”… which Winkler argues “…the whole point of those claims is to fool people into paying money they are not legally obligated to pay” (Wrinkler, 2017, para. 4). In another case involving the U.S Chambers of Commerce, the supreme court “limited the ability of states to protect residents of a nursing home from being states to protect residents of a nursing home from being forced into arbitration; erected new hurdles for people seeking to bring class actions; and restricted the ability of the Securities and Exchange Commision to force people convicted of securities fraud to pay back their ill-gotten gains” (Winkler, 2017, para. 5). There are speculations that those 15 cases were ruled and swayed by supreme justice Neil Gorsuch, who is a Republican nominated by Donald Trump, and always sides with big corporations and it’s entities… but that is a complex topic to discuss in a short manner. If you would like to look into Neil Gorsuch and those cases, refer to Zephyr Teachout’s article titled “Neil Gorsuch sides with big business, big donors, and big bosses” (Teachout, 2017, title).

NRA Elites vs. Government Elites:

To use a more recent case, the actions from a relationship feud between the National Rifle Association (NRA) and the public sector has created a few concerns/issues for nonelites. To briefly describe, the NRA is considered as a nonprofit organization, within the private sector, whose mission is to “protect and defend the Constitution to acquire, possess, collect, exhibit, transport, carry, transfer ownership of, and enjoy the right to use arms”(Chilson, 2014, para. 2) and also focuses on “promoting public safety, training in safe and and efficient handling of small arms, hunter safety, and shooting sport promotion”(Chilson, 2014, para. 2). Recently, there was a mass high school shooting in Florida to which created an uproar of students across the nation…demanding change in gun laws here in the United States. These issues assumably starts with the elites in the governmental sector, which is part of the public sector.

According to Dr. Ali Farazmand, “the elitist democratic politics…asserts that a few individuals or groups make the most commanding decisions in society, and they do this outside of the formal governmental structures” (Farazmand, 2002, p. 104). These “elitist politicians” are ones who tend to receive funding from private organizations during their campaigning…for a return of some benefit for the private organization in some form. Over the years, the NRA has funded legislators and politicians to keep, influence, and or sway laws in their favor and also to keep politicians who support the NRA in power (office/congress). The NRA is funded by membership dues, program fees, and contributions for sporting events, gun safety education, and training programs (Elis & Hicken, 2015).

The nonelites, in this case, would be the victims/survivors of the recent Florida shooting and all supporters of the movement that followed after that, which is the “March for Our Lives” organization. These nonelites have been at a disadvantage since the first few mass school shootings. The reason being is because whenever a mass shooting occurs, the nonelites demand gun law or gun control policies changed…the top leaders in government (the power elite) either don’t make any gun law changes and or evade/delay/procrastinate on any process of making changes…because the of the top leaders of the NRA (the ruling class elite) fund the politicians to stay in power to make sure the gun laws remain in the NRA’s favor…which would classify both entities (power and ruling class elite) as the plural elite model. To briefly elaborate, summarized below describes the elite forms stated above:

In government, the “power elite” model consist of government officials that are a part of the two highest levels in the political field that separate their powers to control or make decisions. Per CharlesWright Mills perspective, “the first group of uppermost elites generally sets the broad parameters and boundaries of the political and governmental systems, allowing the secondary level of non-inner circle elites to interact and function on the plural model…the first group of uppermost elites includes the boundary setters, the second elites groups are the operational decision makers and implementers of the directives of the former” (Farazmand, 2002, p. 108). The “ruling class” elite model consist of top leaders in the business field and some within the political arena, who “position those uppermost elites who are present in most significant decisions, and choices of non-decisions, made in society” (Farazmand, 2002, p. 109). The “plural elite” model consist in organizations, such as the NRA, and “the prominent leaders or elite groups present in the interaction networks located on different decision centers”…who “depends on prominent positions and involvement in significant policy-making areas” (Farazmand, 2002, 107).

As for the series of unfortunate events for nonelites, first… the NRA receives major contributions from famously known companies and elite individuals within the gun industry whose overall goal… is to sell guns. Secondly, the NRA uses those funds to supply political candidates, who support NRA’s mission, throughout the election year, so they can become or remain in power of the gun control policies. Thirdly, a mass shooting happens and nonelites then demand gun law reform from political leaders, in which a minority of political leaders attempt to but the majority do not because they support how the current gun laws already are (NRA effect). Fourth, in which resulting in, multiple mass shootings continue to occur, dozens of nonelites lose their own life or a loved one, political leaders don’t change any gun policies, and gun sales in the gun industry stay consistent or rise.

To add on statistical facts, according to Chris Morris, in the 2016 presidential race, “the NRA spent $11,438,118 to support Donald Trump—and another $19,756,346 to oppose Hillary Clinton” (Morris, 2018, para. 3). At that time, Trump was a NRA supporter and Hilary Clinton was not. Also, according to Aaron Williams data collection, the top senators and representatives elected in office now are all Republicans and received, if not hundreds of thousands, millions of dollars in support from the NRA (Williams, 2018). Also, currently there is an petition out to revoke the NRA’s 501c4 Tax Exemption status because they are “lobbying activity not explicitly related to the 2nd amendment and their for profit magazines” (Abraham, 2018, p. 1).

GREEN Buildings vs. Traditional Buildings:

Moving on to another example of how public and private sectors conflicts affects nonelites…the process of establishing a sustainable city and ultimately creating and healthier environment. One of the main issues or dilemmas in achieving the goal of a healthy environment is climate change, or what majority may refer as, “Global Warming.” As time goes by, global warming is becoming a controversial topic whether it�