The idea that you should run the government like a business...

[WCGreen]

is ridiculous in the reality based world.

First of all, a business is in marketplace, competing. Government operates outside the marketplace.

A business has a primary mission to turn a profit. There is no profit incentive in government. If you don't have enough to supply the basic needs of your citizens, you raise funds. If you have a surplus you cut taxes. A business does not have that luxury.

A business makes a commitment to its customers. A government has to provide for citizens without any other connection except that they are alive and live in that governments jurisdiction.

A government is there to provide access to the basic functions of society. A business is not.

A business can not operate with a deficit for very long. A national government can borrow money to keep providing essential needs by borrowing.

By the way, pushing more and more government provided by the federal to the states is just another way to get rid of the functions of government because states cannot run a deficit like the federal government.

So mull that over, offer some more examples and think about this the next time a conservative says privatize.

[annabanana]

1. Yeah.. except a "business's commitment to its customers" is secondary

to its commitment to its shareholders.

Which makes it even LESS appropriate for governance.

[KurtNYC]

2. "Run like a business" is NOT 'government should BE a business'

I think that government programs should be required to have performance measures. Government's best goal is quality of life for all citizens and we should link expenditures to results so that programs and practices can be voted on.

[RKP5637]

4. Definitely, if the gating measure is "quality of life for all citizens." Pathetically, $$$$$ is

generally the gating measure and "quality of life for all citizens" comes in as a secondary concern.

[KurtNYC]

8. I think it is worse than that. If the government is a business then it is one

that lets its vendors write their own purchase orders. It is a business that does the bidding of other businesses with no regard for its own financial condition. It is like a giant Citibank that needs a bailout every 15th of April.

[RKP5637]

9. Sadly, quite true! We're stuck in a rut and I often wonder what will

be the catalyst for dynamic change. TPTB, the 1%, the $$$$$ controllers will not make any change, because well, it's the right thing to do.

[kentuck]

3. Too bad more Democrats do not point this out....

kick and rec

[riqster]

5. A government can define profit as a stable, just society

If that were how they defined it, no prob. But they cling to the monetary definition, which is why the "run it like a business" idea doesn't' work.

[WCGreen]

6. I like that..

[lunatica]

7. The primary role of government is to spend money

And to spend it on the welfare and well being of the American citizens. It's therefore run by elected officials, who are put in their offices to run the government and to see to it that the citizens are the beneficiaries of said government.

I don't see how anyone can confuse the roles of business and government.

[WCGreen]

11. Conservatives are always yammering about running the government

like a business.

It's time to make them own it.

[Baitball Blogger]

10. Business is unethical. Period.

[Yavin4]

12. A Business Can Declare Bankruptcy, Close Up Shop, and Walk Away Forever

A government cannot do this. A government has to serve the people no matter what.

[Vox Moi]

13. The Government-as-business meme infuriated me ...

... because not only was total nonsense, nobody ever challenged it.
Why didn't Obama and supporters challenge Romney to do something more than just repeat this mantra?
Exactly how would government-as-business work?
Make a profit?
Have a board of directors and investors?
What?
It was a bogus panacea, propagated by people who think that 'business' is the only social institution a society needs.
It was The Big, Stinking Lie.
... and nobody ever called them on it.

[ck4829]

14. If the govt was a business ran according to the people who say it should be ran like a business...

It wouldn't last a year, probably not even a month.

* Let's not raise any money
* Let's not spend any money on things that people want, things like infrastructure, but on antique military products
* Let's not compete with private businesses that provide similar to services as us
* Let's not provide our people with benefits

[Lucky Luciano]

15. My boss here often comments that the business skill

that would be most valuable would be negotiating - not the profit motive. There are clearly a lot of hard line negotiating tactics that must be used in government and his claim is that a C-level executive is the type that can tactfully maneuver through those negotiations. I agree to a point, but it is hard to trust that the negotiating skills being employed would be for the maximal benefit of the country over selfish aspirations.

[WCGreen]

20. the problem with state and especially local governments....

is the lenders are often forced to make adjustments through out the fiscal year if funds are not going to match the expenses.

[Gman]

16. I just like to say that there is no Owner's Equity in government's balance sheet

they start sputtering after that. Usual responses are along the lines of "well, we're the owners" or something just as inane or worse.

[WCGreen]

19. That's a really good point..

State and local governments are not allowed, by law, to run into a deficit at the end of the fiscal year. They have to cut stuff as the future shortfall is known.

[Gman]

21. Exactly

But the basics of accounting are lost on these idiots.

[jmowreader]

17. Business is not required to go broke on September 30

Every government agency is required to go broke on the last day of the fiscal year.

There is a government agency called the National Reconnaissance Office. They run our spy satellites. Satellites are very expensive and so is all the equipment that supports them. In the 1980s they got a director who decided to run NRO like a business. He got Congress to fund him at levels proper for his agency, and then he hired the best negotiators he could to deal with suppliers and the like. Over five years this asshole saved up enough to build a new $220 million headquarters without an additional nickel of tax funds.

When Congress found out they shit bricks and went into "we must make sure this never happens again!" mode. I thought they should have figured out a system of controls to prevent fraud then allowed every government agency to do the same thing. Requiring them to spend it all does not motivate a sense of thrift in our bureaucrats.

My thinking is, we allow agencies to retain the funds they don't use in a safe investment vehicle they can get out of quick. They report their interest earnings to a Congressional office. They can use the money as rainy-day funding or to buy capital equipment. And in the event their interest earnings reach one percent of what Congress gives them, Congress can have the option to reduce their funding by half their interest income.

I can see some government agencies being run exactly like businesses. Take the Army and Air Force Exchange Service - the PX system. Right now, it's only open to the military. There is no reason why AAFES could not change to a two-tier price structure - 10% off for military ID card holders - and open their stores to the public. The additional profits would go to the government to reduce the deficit. The added volume would allow AAFES to negotiate better prices from suppliers. And the "troop profit" (those guys sell to soldiers at a profit now; the profit earned up to the price soldiers pay will be called troop profit) will go toward supporting soldiers. Only allow them to build next to military bases, so we don't have another Walmart on our hands, and only let PXs on the edges of installations, or new ones built outside the gate, do it for security reasons.

We also have two manufacturers in our government: Skilcraft (National Institutes for the Blind) and Unicor (Federal Prison Industries). Why can't these two sell to the public? Most of their competitors manufacture in China, and people want to buy American.

[quaker bill]

18. Don't we have enough theft already?

Never in government's wildest excesses has it ever done anything as destructive as ENRON, World Com or the housing bubble. Why would we want it to work like a business?