Why a Nation should / should NOT be Governed like a Company?

1. 74

   Goodpalposted 13 years ago

   Why a Nation should / should NOT be Governed like a Company?

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2. 57

   Felixedet2000posted 13 years ago

   The reason is: nation is own by all the people within a geographical location, the definition for a company is not nearer to this at all.

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3. 72

   marriedwithdebtposted 13 years ago

   I think this sentiment, "government should be run like a business" is usually spoken by people who truly don't believe it.
   
   Look at all the companies who have raised the prices of their goods over the past three years - nearly all of them. This is akin to a "tax increase" by government.
   
   But you would never hear someone who thinks gov't should be run like a business agree that taxes should be raised.
   
   I suppose if they were America's CEO, they'd let the company go bankrupt.

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4. 60

   thesecondadventposted 13 years ago

   My Dear Sweet friend,
   Actually we would say that it IS a company.  There are two parts to the board of directors, a president of the board, a legal team to make sure the board and president obey certain guidelines.  The Board of Directors is elected by each state's people thereby representing and serving their needs. More important, the President is elected, and not a dictator.
   
   Finally, there are a few who believe that the U.S. government is a publicly traded entity charged with making sure the live a lavished life.

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5. 70

   Larry Fieldsposted 13 years ago

   Goodpal, your question has many facets. Here's one. In a corporation, the dividends that one receives, and the influence that one has, are proportional to the number of shares that one holds in the company. To a certain extent, a similar imbalance is inevitable in government.
   
   Example: A Fire Department receives two simultaneous calls for help. One is from a person with a million-dollar house. The other is from a less-wealthy person with a much smaller house. The department only has enough resources to put out one of the blazes. The Fire Chief can minimize the dollar-value of the property damage, by saving the expensive house. And realistically, that's what he would do.
   
   On the other hand, the 14th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution grants equality before the law, regardless of wealth. As I've pointed out in the example, sometimes that equality is honored more in the breach than in the observance. But the principle is sound.
   
   If we went overboard in corporatizing the various levels of government in the U.S., equality before the law would suffer. Benjamin Franklin may have had that idea in the back of his mind when he offered this bit of cynical wisdom:
   
   Democracy is two wolves and a lamb voting on what to have for dinner.

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6. 66

   benjamin franklyposted 13 years ago

   You have the option of buying or not buying a companies products; you don't have the option of paying taxes;  one thing is for sure, if you insist on higher taxes,  the profit margins for businesses will lessen and their willingness to put money at risk will diminish;  This is not to say that all businessn are "saintly";  far from it.  Businesses and governments are run by people, who all have inherent weaknesses some of which are greed, thirst for power, narcissistic  tendencies, etc.  When government gets to big, too powerful it becomes easier for it not to answer to the people;  when businesses get too big and too powerful, it becomes easier for them to ignore the market place and use their wealth to influence government policies.  This would not happen as easily with smaller, limited government. 
   I empathize with your situation; but again, the culprit here is big government;  by playing the political game and making college education "affordable" to everyone by providing an easy way to obtain student loan financing and encouragfing universities to provide everyone with a college education,  a college degree has become (not worthless but)worth less.  In addition, there was too much demand and not enough supply of university and college resources and the costs spun out of control;  The government should have kept their hand out of it.  They helped make the mess and should hekp fix it;  One way they could start is to make college debt repayment completely tax deductable.

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