Can a country be run like a business?

Sure.

Of course, just like a business it’ll benefit only a few people at the top at the expense of literally everyone else, and when it hits rock bottom, even then the people at the top will profit and get away with a golden parachute while the rest of us are left with nothing or less than nothing.

But yeah, you could do it.

Yeah Sure. Why not.
And you can run business like a country…

A fascist dictatorship could be. Not a democracy.

A business is run to benefit the owners and the stockholders; the richest. A country is run to help those who need help so no – it shouldn’t be.

No. I recall reading a story about a tobacco company claiming that lung cancer was good for the country because it reduced the number of people getting social security.

@LostInParadise there was a guy in college who said it was OK to take food from the cafeteria and dump it without eating it, because it was good for the farming industry.

Nope. I just watched a really good video about that. Let’s see if I can find it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GpCYtw5R5RU

In a business model, the citizens would be seen as the customers, and the government would be seen as the CEO’s and owners of the business. One problem with that. WE, the citizens, are the owners and bosses of the men and women in the government. THEY work for US.

This one is good, too; https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y3Nnkem7YTk

Someone bungled on the TV recently and put down a certain Senator or Congressman, saying, ‘He should know better than to behave like that. He works for the President.’ It was such a wrong, incorrect thing to say. Senators and Congressmen exactly don’t work for the president. They work directly for their constituents.

@cazzie That particular Congressman DOES work for the President. He is an administration tool.

You can’t run a government like a business because you cannot discriminate between citizens the way a business can between customers. Businesses can alter their markets and their pricing, a representative government cannot do that without consent.

If he is a congressman he is meant to be working for the constituents that elected him. I’m sure there are plenty of tools in government, the current president being the biggest one.

^Trying to just sit back here, but NICE @cazzie . Trump’s not the sharpest “tool” either.

Well, it shouldn’t.

Countries can be run in all sorts of ways: dictatorships, conquering empires, corruption pits, corporate tools.

I don’t even think businesses should be run “like” (all-for-profit not-for-good) businesses.

Besides, if they are trying to run it like a business, they’re even doing a lousy job of that!

You mean businesses like Exxon, Volkswagen, and these? And by business “leaders” like Trump? Hmm, I don’t think so.

@zenvelo A congressional representative is a representative of the people first, under constitutional law. That is their first loyalty. Everything and everybody else comes second. Otherwise, we lose our triumvirate of checks and balances. It is the people’s responsibility to not forget that and hold their representatives’ feet to the fire.

Businesses aren’t democratic structures. If a country is run like a business, you lose your voice in that government. You lose democracy. You have a plutocracy, not a democracy.

@Espiritus_Corvus I know what I expect of my Congressman, but Mr Nunes has demonstrated that he is, and been endorsed by his colleagues as, a representative of President Trump.

It will be up to the voters in his district to decide if they like that. The Speaker of the House has not had any issues with Mr Nunes or his colleague’s description of him as an Administration representative.

I think there are two different goals for running a business v a country.

You run a business for profit. In order to make the profit, you provide a product that is in demand. To encourage that profit you take care of the employees who you elect to work for you. You pay them.

You run a country on a global stage and for different reasons. You don’t want to go broke, but making a profit should NOT be the goal. Carefully balancing budgets, among other things, is. The citizens pay you. Taking care of the citizens who elected you, and who pay you, is your goal.

Trump doesn’t have a clue.

Of course it can’t. The two are mutually exclusive. A business sole responsibility is to make a profit for its shareholders. A government’s sole responsibility is to care for its citizens.

Yes and no.

It’s good to run both with good fiscal acumen.

Where the no comes in is one of governments main jobs is to protect those who need the most protection, and business doesn’t usually care about that.