Michigan pays about $34,000 for every prisoner and about $11,000 for a student. The cost per prisoner is roughly what a new teacher would get paid, if not more.

Most studies of correctional facilities seem to agree jail and prison do not help rehabilitate individuals. The stigma of a criminal record makes finding gainful employment difficult. If prisons are not doing their jobs, why do we allow them to continue to operate in this manner? It seems practical to provide education and rehab to prisoners and facilitate their entrance into the system. Given the chance to sell drugs, be a construction worker or electrician, people almost always choose the latter simply because it pays much better.

However, the prison-industrial complex now employs more people than Wal-Mart Stores Inc. and McDonald’s Corp. combined. Last year’s illegal immigration bill in Arizona was conceived and paid for by the prison lobby. The industry has become privatized and lucrative. They actually want more prisoners. And have strong lobbies to help them accomplish this task.

Speaking of powerful lobbies, the defense industry — which contains names such as Boeing Co., Lockheed Martin Corp., Halliburton Co. and XE — also possesses a lot of influence because they employ thousands across the nation.

Strangely enough, these companies attempt to place their operations in as many congressional districts as possible in order to ensure support in Congress. Rather than attempt to cut costs by producing everything on site, companies spend as much as possible because the government will foot the bill; this is how they operate overseas in Iraq and Afghanistan. At the moment, spending more is rewarded, rather than efficiency.

In 2012, current defense-related budget estimates are in the range of $1 trillion to $1.4 trillion for defense. Having a strong military is important, but there are definite ways of cutting costs and increasing efficiency.

The lobbying power of the privatized prison industry and privatized military corporations is massive. I do not blame any individuals for the role money and lobbying has come to play in politics, but I see the need for change.

Elected officials, at present, need corporate support, or getting elected will be difficult. This makes them prisoners in their own right. Corporations indirectly write new bills and policies because they get people elected and pay for their next lunch.

This is to say nothing of the news that the largest corporations like Bank of America Corp. pay less in taxes than you and me, thanks to loopholes and a complicated tax code, all the while handing out swelling bonuses.

I would advocate for the emergence of the education lobby, but who would fund such a thing, teachers? No, we somehow must take government, both state and federal, back from the hands of the corporate world. It’s easier said than done because businessmen dabble in politics, as well — think Gov. Rick Snyder.

I do not want to sound too Orwellian, but it seems corporations are the most powerful actors in American politics today, to the detriment to our schools, finances and the system.

After Snyder’s new bill gives emergency power to financial managers, corporations will be able to dissolve cities and erect a system they design, free of government interference and accountability. Providing education and services will not be high on their priority list.

Let’s talk about our economic problems to limit inefficiency in the nation as a whole, instead of scapegoating “greedy” public employees.

Joey Podrasky is a State News guest columnist and an anthropology and Arabic senior. Reach him at podrask2@msu.edu.