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@isotopp nothing new tbh.
The #USA has a #ForProfit #PrisonIndustry which results in the highest incarceration rate in the world, even if we assume everyone else underreports their numbers by 100%...
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"Charging people in prison to communicate with the outside world has long been good business."
Katya Schwenk for The Lever: https://longreads.com/2025/03/21/the-succession-battle-for-a-prison-empire/
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This year, #GEOgroup & Washington are back in court — for a third time — as the company tries to reverse the earlier decision that sided w/the state. #GEO has brought in contract cleaners at the Tacoma facility while the case plays out, keeping detainees there from *paid* work & from having a way to earn commissary money.
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At the 1,575-bed detention center GEO runs for #ICE in Tacoma, Washington, detainees once prepared meals, washed laundry & scrubbed toilets, doing jobs that would otherwise require 85 full-time employees…. The state’s #MinimumWage at the time was $11 an hour. (It’s now $16.66.) In 2017, Washington sued GEO to enforce it, & in Oct 2021 a federal jury ruled unanimously in the state’s favor.
The #forprofit #prison company #GEOGroup has surged in value under #Trump. Investors are betting big on #immigration #detention. Its stock price doubled after Election Day.
But despite its soaring fortunes, the $4B company continues to resist having to pay detainees >$1 a day for cleaning facilities where the government has forced them to live.
#law #Slavery
https://www.propublica.org/article/geo-group-ice-detainees-wage
ProPublicaAn ICE Contractor Is Worth Billions. It’s Still Fighting to Pay Detainees as Little as $1 a Day to Work.
More from 
ProPublica
#Ice #detention isn’t just a bureaucratic nightmare. It’s a #business. These facilities are privately owned and run #forprofit.
Companies like CoreCivic and GEO Group receive government funding based on the number of people they detain, which is why they lobby for stricter immigration policies. It’s a lucrative business: CoreCivic made over $560mfrom Ice contracts in a single year. In 2024, GEO Group made more than $763m from Ice contracts.
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/mar/19/canadian-detained-us-immigration-jasmine-mooney
The Guardian · I’m the Canadian who was detained by Ice for two weeks. It felt like I had been kidnapped
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Update. "#DOGE order leads to journal cancellations by U.S. agricultural library"
https://www.science.org/content/article/doge-order-leads-journal-cancellations-u-s-agricultural-library
"The #USDA on Friday told staff members it has canceled subscriptions carried by its National Agricultural Library as part of a drive by President Donald #Trump’s administration to cut federal spending. The move appears to drop nearly 400 of the library’s roughly 2000 journals, including many prominent in various agricultural subfields —but curiously none from the world’s three largest scientific publishers, all of which are #ForProfit. USDA staff members depicted the move as hasty, indiscriminate slashing…Studies of journal subscription fees indicate that on average, scientific #SocietyPublishers charge less than such for-profit companies."
PS: (1) Of course the best ag research should be #OpenAccess. But that's a goal, not the current reality, and while we work for that goal, policymaking agencies still need access the best research. (2) If efficiency requires budget cuts, why focus the cuts on journals from #nonprofit #publishers, which on average are lower in price and higher in quality?
#Firefighting Fire Sale
After #US #ForestService #layoffs, will #forprofit contractors protect you from #wildfires?
Like many of 3,400 Forest Service abruptly fired by #DOGE, Kloetzel’s permanent job offer last spring had come with a 1 year “probationary” period, with fewer job protections. Since he lives in Forest Service housing, he also lost his housing. Altogether, around quarter of the ranger district’s employees were fired. “It’s a bitter pill to swallow,” he says.
https://www.levernews.com/the-firefighting-fire-sale/
The Lever · The Firefighting Fire SaleAfter U.S. Forest Service layoffs, will for-profit contractors protect you from wildfires?
"Groups like Thorn use everything they can to put this legislation forward, not just because they feel that this is the way forward to combat sexual child abuse, but also because they have a commercial interest in doing so."—Arda Gerkens (ATKM) >
#CSAR #lack of #transparency #BigBrother #FalsePositives #ForProfit #hypocrites #pedocriminality #surveillance #PrivateLobbies #YlvaJohannson #Technocracy #lobbying #EuropeanCommission #regulation #spying #privacy #PrivacyProtection #ChildAbuse #ChildProtection #Techbros #profit #ConflictOfInterest #ignorance #technology #tech #Eurocrats #BigBusiness #NGOs #PrivateLobby #CommercialInterests #screening #CitizenFiling #Snap #Palantir #AshtonKutcher = #Abusers for #MassSurveillance #SurveillanceCapitalism #PrivacyRights
Le Monde · The EU fight against child pornography stokes fears of widespread online surveillance
#ForProfit #HealthCare is a crime against humanity. It places a value on human life and tells us the profit of #shareholders rightly depends upon #denying care to those who need it in line with actuarial figures. No bean-counter should sign your death warrant to make others rich.
It's a wonder more incidents like that aren't happening. Expect CEOs to start having armed guards ('cuz they can afford it). They target innocent people, now the people are targeting them!
This is what's wrong with #ForProfit Healthcare!
"The business run by Thompson brought in $281 billion in revenue last year, making it the largest subsidiary of the Minnetonka, Minnesota-based UnitedHealth Group. His $10.2 million annual pay package, including salary, bonus and stock options awards, made him one of the company’s highest-paid executives.
[...]
"Thompson also drew attention in 2021 when the insurer, like its competitors, was widely criticized for a plan to start denying payment for what it deemed non-critical visits to hospital emergency rooms.
"'Patients are not medical experts and should not be expected to self-diagnose during what they believe is a medical emergency,' the chief executive of the American Hospital Association wrote in an open letter addressed to Thompson. 'Threatening patients with a financial penalty for making the wrong decision could have a chilling effect on seeking emergency care.'"
It seems pretty obvious that the gunman had suffered because of UnitedHealthcare's practices!
"The masked gunman who stalked and killed the leader of one of the largest U.S. health insurance companies on a Manhattan sidewalk used ammunition emblazoned with the words 'deny,' 'defend' and 'depose,' a law enforcement official said Thursday."
Source articles:
https://apnews.com/article/united-healthcare-ceo-new-york-shooting-brian-thompson-8a130e64bcab749d1a085f5a34ab8254
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…the changes announced yesterday simply demonstrate…what has long been happening within #OpenAI. The #nonprofit has continued to exist until now. But all of the outside investment—billions of dollars from a range of #tech cos & #VentureCapital firms—goes directly into the #ForProfit, which hires the company’s employees.The board crisis at the end of last yr, in which #SamAltman was temporarily fired, was a major test of the balance of power between the 2. The money won, & Altman ended up on top.
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In Aug of that year, I [Karen Hao] embedded in OpenAI’s office for 3 days to profile the company. That was when I first noticed a growing divergence between #OpenAI’s public facade, carefully built around a narrative of transparency, altruism, & collaboration, & how the company was run behind closed doors: obsessed w/ secrecy, profit-seeking, & competition.
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In the 6 months following the release of GPT-2, OpenAI would make many more announcements, including #SamAltman stepping into the CEO position, its addition of a #ForProfit arm technically overseen & governed by the #nonprofit, & a new multiyear partnership with, & $1B investment from, #Microsoft.
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To top it off, Reuters, The Wall Street Journal, & Bloomberg reported that #OpenAI is planning to turn away from its #nonprofit roots & become a #ForProfit enterprise that could be valued at $150 billion. #SamAltman reportedly could receive 7% equity in the new arrangement—or the equivalent of $10.5 billion if the valuation pans out.
#OpenAI is reportedly pushing ahead with plans to become a #ForProfit company, as more senior figures left the #ChatGPT developer after the surprise exit of its chief technology officer, #MiraMurati.
The San Francisco-based startup is preparing to change its corporate structure as it seeks $6.5bn (£4.9bn) of new funding, according to reports. #AI #GenAI
OpenAI planning to become for-profit company, say reports
https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2024/sep/26/openai-planning-to-become-for-profit-company-say-reports
The Guardian · OpenAI planning to become for-profit company, say reports
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@a_phlaming_phoenix @munin generally, #ForProfit Healthcare should be as illegal as #ForProfitPrisons becauce they have "#PerverseIncentoves" that are inherently antithetical to to what is beneficial to society and patients!
Infosec.SpaceKevin Karhan :verified: (@kkarhan@infosec.space)@a_phlaming_phoenix@mastodon.social @munin@infosec.exchange you guys have copay on healthcare?
Cuz here prescription costy are [capped by 2% household income]( https://time.com/5706668/insulin-pricing-us-germany/ )...
*confused German noises*
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On Tues, he again took to social media for another post: selling a book—$99, $499 w/his autograph—of pictures of himself. “A MUST HAVE on US History,” he said. In both cases, the money isn’t going to his campaign but #ForProfit ventures he earns millions from promoting.…selling a staggering array of merchandise that includes signed bibles where he receives a royalty for hawking them, pricey sneakers, gold necklaces, cryptocurrency cards, pens, books, licensing fees on overseas properties & more.
#Trump #CashesIn during final wks of his campaign
No candidate has ever so closely linked his election w/personal #ForProfit enterprises, selling items from shoes to books to pieces of his suit.
With <10 wks before the #election, Trump had a msg for voters in late Aug: He would be selling more digital trading cards for $99 each.
“50 all new stunning digital trading cards — it’s really something,” Trump says.
“These cards show me dancing & even holding some bitcoins.”
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2024/09/08/trump-cash-merchandise-books-cards/
The Washington Post · Trump cashes in during final weeks of his presidential campaign