Since when did running government like a business become gospel?

[Cleita]

I expect this from Republicans, but I'm getting it from Democrats too. When I point out that our President and Governor both have MBAs and that they aren't running things very well, their eyes glaze over. I point out that the purpose of business is to make profits to deliver to Wall Street; that their tax dollars are going to Wall Street at the expense of our infrastructure because otherwise there is no way to make profits in government other than by robbing the Treasury. That's because government is not a business but a governing body.

Yesterday, I had a peculiar encounter with a petition gatherer at the supermarket. This guy asked me to sign his petition to put a candidate for our Assembly district on the ballot. I asked him which party the candidate was. He answered he was a Republican or Democrat when it suited him. I said that didn't make any sense. Then he mentioned that his candidate was running as an Independent but that our present Assemblyman didn't know what his party was which is what he meant. That Assemblyman is a Republican but a moderate and not such a bad fellow as he does support education and various programs that help the poor and elderly to get food and medical care. I guess this is what the petition gatherer meant, our Republican Assemblyman wasn't neo-con enough for some. So I asked what his fellow stood for and he said bringing business solutions to solve California's problems. I told him I couldn't sign because business solutions are ruining not only our state but our country. His eyes glazed over and his jaw dropped. I went on my way.

It struck me that this is the problem with us. We have been so soaked in capitalism through television and other communications that we can't see that business is only once facet of a complex society and it certainly does not belong in government anymore than religion does. How do we start educating people that socialism married to capitalism can bring us the best of both philosophies and that many of our European neighbors have proved it to us.

[rucky]

1. The laws of supply and demand work in reverse...

In business, when times are good, demand goes up.

In government, demand goes up when times are bad.

[eleny]

2. Thanks!!!

Short explanations like that work well in email replies to wingers. :thumbsup: :thumbsup: :thumbsup:

[fascisthunter]

4. ooops

wrong place

[Vidar]

3. Warren Harding (an utter clod): "The business of the government is business"

[mrreowwr_kittty]

7. Actually it was Coolidge. Also a clod. nt

[Vidar]

9. Thanks for the correction.

[fascisthunter]

5. Right Around the Time Fascism was Call Freedom

[mrreowwr_kittty]

6. Very well said.

Also, the conflation of "democracy" and "capitalism" has been deliberate and pervasive these past few decades. They are NOT the same thing and thinking they are leads to this dangerous belief that we are bringing "freedom" to backward nations by forcing corporatism on them at the barrel of a gun.

[Edweird]

8. Maybe too many people let the TV tell them what to think

instead of figuring it out for themselves.

[windoe]

10. Exactly!! Businesses are run like dictatorships, they are hierarchies.

Corporate structures do not remotely resemble a democracy, that is why they need oversight by a government theoretically representing the citizenry.
I remember as a young adult coming face to face with this harsh reality when I began working. I had no voice, no vote as to working conditions or salary.

NO--government cannot have a structure of a business, the balance of powers is a very different structure--good post about a common myth.

[cyberpj]

11. The 80's. Reagan. Gordon Gekko. Global Competition. And before that...

Corporate Personhood.