Why should government be ran like a business?

[white_wolf]

I've never understood this argument that successful businessman make successful government officials. Businesses are designed for the sole purpose of making as much profit as possible, they don't care about their employees or even their customers. They are only answerable to their stockholders. Why would we want a government or people in government whose sole goal is to make as much money as possible. Their experience in business hasn't taught them how to serve the majority or else their company would be a co-op, instead they have been taught to serve a small rich minority. So why should we give them any power?

[MADem]

1. If RMoney ran the USA like a business, he'd outsource all our jobs to China, raid our pension funds

and social security monies and divvy them up amongst his co-conspirators to be stashed in Caymanian banks. Then, he'd sell off our government institutions as well as all of our natural resources and older and respected businesses, after breaking them up into chunks and selling the machinery as scrap and the office equipment to whoever would buy it and haul it off.

Then, he'd call us all "shiftless and lazy 47 percenters" and his wife would call us "You People" while the two of them did the "Squirrel Hands" thing at us all!!!!



"Squirrel hands--grrrrrrrrrr--there oughta be a law!!!!"

[silvershadow]

2. It shouldn't. It should be run like a government.

If you want business, go into business. (And never the 'twain shall meet).

[JI7]

3. They shouldn't, i think it would make them worse actually

only way i would consider it is if a person running had a business where they might have lost money but they figured out a way to keep employees and improve the business.

but not like romney where they treat workers like crap.

[JaneyVee]

4. We would have to sell off Red states because they cost us more money than they bring in.

[former-republican]

5. I think it's more to refer to budgets

If a business spends more than it takes in.
Eventually it fails

Unless you are a bank and use tax dollars to bail you out.

[theKed]

6. You're Right.

There is no reason government ought to have any semblance of a business. I should qualify that, I suppose. There is no reason a modern, egalitarian, democratic government ought to have any semblance of a business. If one were to look at a properly-run government, from a business perspective they would (rightly) conclude that whoever is running it is doing a really shitty job. A good chunk of government exists to do things that are far too inefficient for a business to run.

Take health care insurance, for instance, since that's a hot topic these days. Run like a proper free-market business by private enterprise, it makes no sense for anyone to insure a lot of the people who actually need it most: those with long-term and pre-existing crippling conditions. They know you're going to be drawing fat stacks of cash out of the business for a long, long time, so they have no interest in insuring you. Rather, they prefer young, healthy people that work in low-impact jobs - the people who need it least (which is not to say they don't need it at all). This extends to any insurance plan, really. Auto insurance: your premiums go way, way up if you have a history of accidents, drunk driving, etc. By distributing the risk and the cost over the entire populace the risk and cost is evened out to a manageable level, but not optimal for profit.

Nationalized insurance isn't a new thing to America, for the record - in case anyone didn't know. Banks, financial institutions, and investors have benefited from national government insurance for close to a century. Of course, they don't cry "socialism!" about that, since it protects their interests. But, it stabilizes the market and allows a lot of things that otherwise would be difficult if not impossible. National, single-payer healthcare should be as much, if not more, of a no-brainer than financial insurance; the latter helps a few people directly and most people indirectly, the former helps everybody directly.

[shintao]

7. I would like to see government run like a business

Personally I would favor more business in terms of socialization designed to make government self-sufficient so you wouldn't have to pay taxes, stabilize the economny, end wars, make us competitive in the world, lower consumer and corporate costs, etc. It is not that it is impossible to do, it is a state of mind in America that prevents it.

Here is an example of absurd waste allowed to occur in a capitalist system. An acre of YOUR prime oil land leases for less annually than you can rent a Flea Market booth for the weekend.

You can have National Oil and pump your tank with your gas for $2.00 a gallon, and have enough profits (oil is free so it is all profits) to run the oil business and pay for 100% National Health Care for every American.