After thirty-five years of well-funded efforts to privatize most public services, it is harder than ever to get collective solutions onto the political agenda. Take the case of public housing. Like so many other programs that were designed to address social needs, public housing has been under-funded, poorly managed and generally set up for failure. Public housing residents have been stigmatized and marginalized. The stereotypes are so powerful that even many liberal and progressive advocates for expanding affordable housing have given up on public housing.

The secret is out. Private industries don’t necessarily like competition. This statement goes against all the verities of free market ideology, but it is backed up by a century’s worth of evidence. To be exact, industries do not like the uncertainty and chaos that unbridled competition can bring. The corporate form, the entire financial and legal framework, and the ways in which industry relies upon government to rescue it all reflect their efforts to shield themselves from the effects of market chaos.

It was a moment of reckoning. While laying out the terms of a deal that would have averted bankruptcy for Chrysler, President Obama blasted the speculators who were unwilling to accept their share of losses: “They were hoping that everybody else would make sacrifices, and they would have to make none…. I don’t stand with them.”

No matter what a person may believe about taxes and spending – and most people have mixed feelings; they like some programs but not others, and have a sense that there is some degree of unfairness in the tax system – April 15 usually is greeted with anxiety. As conservatives know, this is the perfect day for drumming up anti-taxation sentiments. But do the 'tax day tea parties' represent a grassroots movement, as some conservatives claim?

The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (aka "the stimulus") will pump $787 billion into the economy over the next ten years. To ensure this process' transparency and accountability, and to lessen the likelihood that these funds will go to support corrupt politicians or to enrich private contractors, community organizations and social movements will need to mobilize their members around this issue to discuss, oversee and research projects funded by the stimulus. Mobilizing online using tools like Recovery.gov and StimulusWatch.org is a critical component of this effort.