RWnuts wanted our country to be ran like a business

[lapucelle]

10. I've never understood the calls to run government like a business.

The analogy breaks down immediately once you start asking yourself what role citizens play in the scheme. Are we customers? Shareholders? Board members? Employers? Employees?

According to conventional construction, the purpose of a business is to maximize profits.

According to the founders, the purpose of our constitution, and (by extension) the federal government is to:

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.

These goals are at odds with those of the business model. Whenever someone hands you the anodyne assertion that business people should run government the way businesses are run, challenge them. Make them defend the details. It's a debate that's over before its even begun.