Mitt Romney, as a potential presidential candidate espouses his business experience as if it should be considered a qualification for high governmental office. Ross Perot, when running against Bill Clinton and George H. W. Bush in 1992 clearly stated that ‘Government should be run like a business.’ It seems like if they aren’t comparing government to a family, Republicans compare it to a business.
I think it’s clear to most of us that government not only isn’t run like a business, but shouldn’t be run like a business. But what if it was? What if government were really run like a business? What would it be like? Let’s take a look at the subject, apply some common business practices to the auspices of government.
Products and Services: When a business comes up with a product or service that is highly popular, that’s a good thing for the company. People want it and, generally, are willing to pay for those things they like. Take Medicare and Social Security, two of the most popular programs the government offers. Why would a government run like a business even contemplate closing down one of their most popular lines? It would be like Frito Lay taking corn chips off the shelves and concentrating on just making the dips.
Costs and Revenues: If a business isn’t meeting their costs, the first option isn’t to take the products (especially their best selling products) off the shelves. They might see if there is a way to produce that product more cheaply, but often they simply raise the price. In a government, that’s called raising taxes and oddly, the party that supports a business’s right to keep hiking up prices until 90% of the amount is profit, don’t want the government to do the same.
Loss Leaders: The idea of getting people into the store by advertising something for sale at a price below cost is something that can come out at any time, but is more often seen around holidays. This can be equated with giving free education to our children and youth. The government pays to educate these kids to draw them into a position where a more lucrative salary corresponds to a greater participation in the revenues of the country as a whole. Yet Republicans seem to want to eliminate public education.
Region Coding: DVD’s have been sold around the world with region codes. Wealthier countries were expected to pay more for their movies than the poorer countries and region coding prevented those in the richer locales from purchasing the cheaper versions. This is a business version of the progressive income tax, where the wealthier pay more for the same product.
Qualifications: If you want to buy a new car, lending companies can require you to meet certain standards to qualify for a loan or even an interest rate. Auto Insurance Companies generally look at your driving record, any accidents, whether or not you’ve been cited for traffic violations. Banks sometimes offer free checking but only if you have direct deposit or never use a teller. These are fine for a business, apparently, but government is discriminating when they require qualifications for their products and services, but since we’re running it like a business, we can now apply qualifiers, like requiring businesses who contract with the government to hire only American workers. The progressive income tax could be supported here as well, requiring lower income for discounts from the tax code and a work history to determine the length of unemployment benefits (someone who has been employed for 15 years should probably qualify for longer benefits than someone who has only worked for 15 months.)
Those people who claim that government should be run like a business or that all government can do is waste your hard-earned money, have never taken a close look at modern businesses. The administration of a big corporation is no more smooth-running or absent corruption than government bureaucracy. Managers have managers who have managers. The distance between where the work is done and the top of the company is usually much further than that between a congressman and his average constituent. If you remember from the BP Oil Disaster, CEO Tony Blair apparently knew nothing about what his company was engaged in, nothing about the work being done. The lack of true competition also means that, while it might seem you have a choice, the choice is either sharply limited or, in many cases, imaginary. Corporate America, in which you do not have a vote, takes a lot more of your money than the government – and often gives you less in return.
