How many times have I heard people say we should run our government like a business? Actually, I hear it quite often.
Okay, if we run our government like a business, then would not the following also be applicable?
Elected officials as like private industry CEOs should be paid salaries in the millions of dollars. Top governmental employees as like private top managers should be paid hundreds of thousands of dollars. Line staff governmental employees should be paid minimum wage as is paid to many employees in private business enterprises.
The personal lives, financial interests, assets and liabilities, sexual orientation, religious and philosophical beliefs, lives of family members, etc. of all persons in government should be private as it is for those in the private business world.
Just as private corporations stop pouring money into financially losing business activities and enterprises, so should governmental agencies stop giving money to financially losing convention centers, stadiums, arenas, airports, zoos, museums, libraries, public television and radio, senior centers and community centers, etc.
Rather than assessing and collecting taxes for services and programs that benefit individuals or certain groups of people, charge user fees to those specific consumers in amounts that would pay the full costs of providing the goods and services. That would include such things as roadway construction and use, mass transit and individual transportation systems, schools and colleges, school breakfast and lunch programs, libraries, parks and recreation, fire and rescue services, refuse and garbage collection, snow removal, leaf collection, job training and vocational rehabilitation, senior centers, senior nutrition programs, Medicare, and so on and so forth.
Close down any governmental agency that is not financially self-sufficient just like private businesses close up when they are not generating revenue of an amount to be self-supporting. That would include such governmental agencies as driver license and auto title bureaus, dog wardens, public prison systems, government-operated job placement offices, records bureaus, food and environmental health inspection operations, Social Security, and more.
Practice the “free enterprise” system and let the marketplace determine its own needs and future; and therefore, eliminate tax abatements for private businesses, enterprise zones, business tax credit programs, cost-free or subsidized provision of infrastructures to private businesses, wage subsidy programs, and other corporate ‘welfare’ activities.
The above scenarios are just a few areas that are applicable in my opinion of having government operate as a business would be operated. Some may or may not be good applications. My thinking is that it depends on each situation; because, I tend to adhere to the situational management approach.
However, if we take the whole subject as a whole and say it is all or none, do you really think government should be run like a business?
Please feel free to share your thoughts on this issue.
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