She.Is.Running!

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

120. Exactly. THE GOVERNMENT IS NOT A BUSINESS.

I have been shouting that from the rooftops, figuratively speaking, for years. There is this idea that because someone is a good business person they would be a good president because it's just like managing a big corporation. This attitude is in part what got Trump elected (that, and racist anger). He's a rich, successful businessman so he must be smart, right? (Trump was actually not even a good businessman, but that's a whole 'nother point).

But the government is not a business. The purpose of a corporation or other commercial entity is to make money for its shareholders/owners. The purpose of government, at least according to the Constitution, is to provide for "the general welfare" and the common defense of its citizens. While everyone agrees that government funds (taxes) should be spent sensibly and not wasted, government does not exist to make a profit. It exists to serve the people.

CEOs and managers of corporations can manage the business and hire and fire people as they please; they are constrained only by their board of directors, which won't care much what the CEO does as long as the business is profitable and everybody stays out of jail. A president, however, is only the manager of the executive branch of the government - and has to answer to the legislative and judicial branches. Everything a president does is supposed to be reviewable by the Congress and the courts, as well as the people. (This is driving Trump crazy, btw.)

I might just strangle the next person who tells me government should be run like a business and therefore a CEO would be a good president.