9 Reasons Why Business People Are Terrible At Governing

[Donnachaidh]

http://www.addictinginfo.org/2011/07/28/9-reasons-why-business-people-are-terrible-at-governing/

A couple of weeks ago, someone sent me an email. The gist of it was that Walmart is a wildly successful company, so why don’t we hire them to run the government? Really? Walmart? Then I thought about it for a while. That email represented a very commonly held idea in this country, that a successful business is superior to government. We elect business people to office on the idea that they will run the government in a more cost effective manner than someone without business experience.

Despite years as a public servant, Mitt Romney is running for President on his business credentials, hoping Republican voters forget about his relatively liberal voting record. Herman Cain’s only claim to fame is as CEO of a pizza chain. George Bush touted business acumen, despite being a very bad business man. To many voters that didn’t matter. To them, it’s better to be a bad business man than a good politician.

It’s easy to see why this idea tempts so many. For 30 years, we’ve been told that government is bad. Grover Norquist (father of the Republican “No New Taxes” pledge) famously said that we should reduce government to the size where it can fit in a bathtub so it can be drowned. The idea attracted a lot of people, especially after being told that government is bloated and stealing our hard earned money.

Whenever we turn on the TV, we hear one thing about the government. It is broke. We have an outrageous deficit and a huge debt. Wouldn’t it make sense to hire elect someone who knows how to handle cash?

More at the link --

[HockeyMom]

1. My way or the highway

That is the problem with "business" elected officials. "You want a job?" "Then shut up or find anotoher job." Isn't that the attitude of business? What compromise is there in business between an employer and employee?

[rurallib]

2. thoughts such as this have been going through my mind lately

but I could not put them into coherency. Thanks for posting this.

[JAnthony]

3. Thoughtful article! Thanks !! n/t

[Uncle Joe]

4. Kicked and recommended.

Thanks for the thread, Donnachaidh.

[Turbineguy]

5. I used to think that.

A friend married a guy with a degree in Public Policy. A professional government bureaucrat. What kind of limp-wristed degree was that?

Then it occurred to me that in an advanced society, a government needs people who know what they are doing.

The teabaggers want people who do not know what they are doing as an incompetent government makes the case for no government. They do not understand what would result from this.

[izquierdista]

7. They want doctors who went to medical school

They want a lawyer who went to law school. They want pilots who have actually flown a plane before. They want to watch movies with people who can act. They get their hair cut from a licensed cosmetologist. But for a politician, they want one with an abiding faith in Jesus.

[moondust]

6. 10. Short-term thinking.

(Focused on finding the next trick or marketing gimmick to boost short-term profits.)

Much of government is about big, long-term programs and things that have nothing to do with profits, like infrastructure.

[Ikonoklast]

8. Remember A&P, when it was the largest, most successful grocery chain in America?

If you do, it is showing your age.

They are a much, much smaller, regional player in the retail grocery business now.

Wal-Mart will go the same way one day...there is one thing guaranteed in business, sooner or later you go under, get smaller, or bought out.


I don't want my government run by short-sighted fools that only see as far as the end of the next quarter.

[dana_b]

9. as I heard on the radio yesterday, the govt. SHOULD have different goals

than a business. A business has obligations to share holders. Our government is supposed to provide for our defense and the general welfare of the people - not to make a damn profit!