Heresy, Heresy!

Heresy, Heresy!!

Today, 9/28/12, on Martin Bashir, Washington Post Columnist Eugene Robinson stated, and I paraphrase, that CEO’s of businesses do not make good political candidates and/or politicians.  In this case Mitt Romney.  If I were the swooning kind, I would have swooned with joy!  This has been my contention for years.

Business types, especially the ones at the top, are simply used to telling people what to do.  If the person doesn’t do it, or makes a mess of it, people like Romney enjoy firing them.  Also, the phrase that government people don’t know how to run government because they have never made a payroll is probably the most idiotic statement I have ever heard.  What does making a payroll have to do with running a government? 

To start with, government is not a business.  A business rightly is in the business of making a profit.  It couldn’t stay in business if it didn’t.  The more profit a business makes, the more people it can employ, and the more it contributes to the general well-being of the community.  So a CEO of a good-sized business is constantly on the lookout for both ways to make more money, and ways not to spend money.  The orientation and mindset of dynamic CEO’s are actually a detriment to running government.   

Government’s primary role, however, is to spend money.  It receives a certain amount of revenue from the people, and must budget that revenue to provide the things that people need.  All people need the infrastructure that government provides:  roads, bridges, school buildings, library buildings, fire and police stations, government buildings for services districts, cities, counties, states and federal offices.  The next tier of expenditures is the employees to occupy the buildings so that these public employees can provide the essential and emergency services that people need:  teachers, librarians, fire and police personnel, transportation departments, department of motor vehicles (licenses), and on and on.  Every time I leave my home in my vehicle, I rely on government to keep my very rural road in enough repair in these tight fiscal times that I can drive on it, for example.  People who live in downtown New York rely on their government for the same essential service.  Public employees are at the mercy of politicians who are elected to office, and oftentimes the quality of our politicians don’t make good personnel managers, thus public sector unions are absolutely necessary under these circumstances to protect the employees.  Not only are the politicians responsible to the community and also their employees, but so should the unions.   

Government is the opposite of business in that government is not in the business of making money.  That is why this push to privatize government services is so terrifyingly dangerous.  We saw what happened when student loans were turned over to Freddie Mac and Sallie Mae.  These institutions had to make a profit since they were businesses.  When government took back the administration of student loans and took the profit motive out, there has been much more funding available for Pell Grants, etc. for students.  Prisons are the most egregious example of privatization.  Since they are a business, they must make a profit.  The businesses do this by decreasing the amenities the prisoners receive, such as decent food and medical care.  Further, the prisoners are often leased out to companies to work for a pittance as low as $1.50 cents a day.  The prisons, of course, are paid much more by the businesses, which love this deal since they don’t need to worry about health benefits, decent working conditions, pension benefits, or raises.  This practice in the United States is a scandal that has long gone unnoticed because it benefits some of the biggest corporations.  Many of the prisoners are undocumented immigrants who have absolutely no recourse.  This used to be known by the ugly word: slavery. 

Of course in a blog of this length it is not possible to go into all of the ways that business and government do not function the same.  It is possible for business and government to cooperate, but only if they realize that each has its place in the universe.

The people who make the best politicians are women who are used to running a household and do a lot of volunteer work.  A household only gets in so much money, and this amount must be budgeted to provide for the essentials the family needs, as well as to save a bit out for what the family wants.  Much like government.  And people who have done a lot of volunteer work, and especially those who have been in charge of volunteers, know that volunteers, like government workers, cannot be fired without cause, that volunteers must be held accountable for the work they volunteer for without making them feel they are being manipulated or coerced.  Even though the mayor, Chair of the Board of Supervisors, Governor, or President would like to wave a magic wand and get what he or she wants done, they are all constrained by the laws and ordinances that prevail.  Which is why I get irritated at business people who whine about regulations.  We all have regulations in our lives.   

So, hail the heresy that CEO’s do not make good politicians or Presidents.