The government should be run like a great American company"

[SHRED]

“The government should be run like a great American company,” Kushner said Sunday in an interview with The Washington Post, which first revealed the new initiative. “Our hope is that we can achieve successes and efficiencies for our customers, who are the citizens.”
http://m.huffpost.com/us/entry/us_58d88946e4b02a2eaab52798

....

While some may think this rhetoric sounds reasonable and smart, it's not.
In fact it's dangerous.

Business goals and our government's goals are at odds. They are often at times at war and this is for good reason.
Our government was established with the goals of the "general welfare" of all citizens and for, "life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness". We established a representative democracy to achieve these goals through our collective voices.
We established a "Bill of Rights" to assure our rights would be protected from mob rule.

There is no "democracy" in business unless the workers form a union. In business you have winners and you have losers. It's a dictatorship for the most part. Top down rule with the goal of profit.

Mussolini coined the word "fascism" as when "government and private interests merge" and we saw the results in Germany 80 years ago.

The fact that Jared talks like this really points to the utter lack of understanding about the completely different functions of government vs business.
And these fools are in charge of our country.

.

[The Big Ragu]

1. It's just the eradication of "the Commons"

and destabilization of American communities.

[SHRED]

2. No sense of a "more perfect union".

[vlyons]

5. sell off the Commons

for pennys on the dollar to a Trump relative.

[ProfessorGAC]

3. As I Said In A Related Thread. . .

. . .what would they know about running a great american company? How many times has Apple, Microsoft, GE, or FedEx filed for bankruptcy?

[vlyons]

4. to run gov like an American corporation,

you would have to shut it down, fire all the workers, and ship what's left overseas. Maybe to Russia?

[unblock]

6. if the government were run as a for-profit company, we would immediately jack up taxes on the rich.

and dividend out the profits to its owners, we the people.

[DetlefK]

7. Like a german company?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Work_council

Where the unions have a permanent seat at the company's table right with the bosses?

[DetlefK]

8. And what is that company producing and selling?

No, honestly. The purpose of a company is to produce and sell goods/services.

If the government is run like a company, what would the government be producing and selling? With which resources? And who are the customers? And what is the price?

[leftstreet]

11. The product - our labors. The fruits - given to the rich

That's how they see it

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

9. This notion that government has to be run like a business

is a favorite of the GOP but it's ridiculous. The entire purpose of a business is to make profits for its owners, but the elected officials of a government are not its owners. The purpose of government is not to make money but to manage its functions for the benefit of its citizens. The Constitution specifically states what the government should do; it says: "We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America."

Nobody of any political stripe would argue against the basic idea that the government should use its funds efficiently and should not waste taxpayers' money (like, maybe, for a president's golf vacations every weekend?). But while profit-making is the sole goal of a corporation, government has many goals and many interests that must be balanced, and profit-making is not among them. The process of governing for the benefit of all citizens has to recognize that some things that are social assets will not be profitable (e.g., the arts), and that some things that could be profitable are not social assets (e.g., tobacco, pornography). So a responsible government will regulate or prohibit some things that could be profitable but are not good, and it will promote some things that are good but would not make money on their own.

Here's where the argument for government as a business falls apart: The GOPers are trying to selectively eliminate from the budget some "unprofitable" functions and programs (e.g., arts funding, Meals on Wheels(!)), but notwithstanding their "run it like a business" mantra they want to increase military funding - even though the military is enormously expensive to maintain and could not possibly make a profit on its own. But we have military forces because the Constitution says the government should "provide for the common defense," and it is generally agreed that we should have defensive capabilities even if the cost is up for debate.

But how can they argue that we must run the government like a business if they are willing to support, at massive expense, something that can't ever be profitable? They want to cut many other "unprofitable" parts of the government, so where's the consistency in their theory?

[spanone]

10. he's 150% wrong.

and who the fuck is he, anyway?

[ChoppinBroccoli]

12. This Talking Point Has Been Doled Out To The Lapdogs

I've seen this very talking point repeated, almost verbatim, from 3 different people on my Facebook feed in the last few hours. They say, "Politicians created this massive deficit, and only a businessman can save us from it." The hilarious thing about it is they have no idea how businessmen run businesses. I heard these same people proudly declare, "Just default on the debt," during the campaign, oblivious to just how devastating doing something like that would be to our economy. You CAN'T run the government like a business. They are two fundamentally different entities. These are the same morons who want a "Balanced Budget Amendment," once again oblivious to how it would destroy the economy.

[pnwmom]

13. NO. This is not America, Inc. And the President is a public servant, not the Boss. n/t

[procon]

14. If I recall my grade school history text book, we already tried that.

The British East India Company was the world's first multinational corporation. They maintained their own private army to collect taxes and payments, installed colonial governments and ruled entire countries in the name of the British Crown. Their monopoly on American trade gave rise to the famous slogan "no taxation without representation" and sparked the American Revolution.

A hostile corporate takeover of our government is no different than fascism, an involuntary privatization that is intended to end democracy.

[LWolf]

15. Good lord. No. Please. nt

[Tommy_Carcetti]

16. Sort of like this one?

[karynnj]

17. Even the NY Post is not calling Kushner's country great - "death trap" is not positive

http://nypost.com/2016/11/16/jared-kushners-building-is-a-filthy-death-trap-lawsuit/

[hollowdweller]

18. Does he mean we should bust the unions fire all the US workers and

replace them with outsourced jobs and contractors? Pay everybody in management out the ass and cut benefits for those doing the work?

Or does he mean our gov't should be able to be bought and sold like US companies are?

[Blue_true]

19. We had our example. The business knows everything mindset led to the crash of 1929. nt

[Ilsa]

20. Or more like a trump company: bankrupt in less than four years. nt

[WinkyDink]

21. "OUR CUSTOMERS" is very telling. Trump, Inc., thinks they are our BOSSES. We can be FIRED.

[SHRED]

23. I retired from a city job

Years ago they started calling the citizens "customers".
It never sat well with me.

[WinkyDink]

24. And I retired from public education, where the students became known as "products." Grrrrrr.....

[meadowlander]

22. Trumpcare was a great example.

CEO has a vague "vision" pulled out of his ass. Mediocrities in middle management scramble to present something good enough for the CEO to sign off on, regardless of whether it will work or not. When everything comes crashing down, CEO blames middle managers. Rinse and repeat.

The problem is when you do that in government, people die.

Something like 2/3rds of businesses fail within 10 years. I'm not sure where this myth came about that running government like a business will solve all its problems, but I think the government we had before Trump had a better than a 33% of still being around in 10 years.

[ck4829]

25. Like Enron?

[Hugin]

26. Just like in 2008? A great company like those? The same companies the GOVERNMENT bailed out?

To the tune of Trillions of Dollars?

No, instead this is PURE FASCISM. Idiot.

Jeebus H. Christ... Kurshner is way beyond stupider and entitled than I ever imagined.

[Vogon_Glory]

27. Like ENRON?