The More I Think On It

[talon]

The more I'm convinced running a country like a business is the wrong model.

A business pre-supposes there is an unlimited customer base, a desire by the customer to buy their products ad infinitum, and ignores those who are not in their specific demographic. A Ven diagram of the demographics of Pitney Bowes, WalMart, and Berkshire Hathaway clearly demonstrates that huge swaths of tax-paying citizens would not be considered - they'd be paying to support everyone else while their own governmental needs would be either non-existent or underserved.

Businesses cater to their demographic, and no business is so large it can meet the needs of a demographic as a large as a country as large and diverse as America.

We need to abandon the business model as a government model because our country should not be run as a for-profit organization.

Actually, it shouldn't be run like a non-profit, either, because many non-profits are based on the same business model as for-profit businesses and target limited groups of people.

A government needs to consider the needs (not wants, needs) of each of its citizens. No group of citizens should be marginalized, or worse - mined, for the benefit of other groups of citizens. We don't need to "rob Peter to pay Paul", and there truly is enough to that none of our citizens should be in desperate want.

I think the reason we have become such a callous country, so eager to steal from the disadvantaged to further feed the advantaged, to prevent entire groups of citizens from enjoying the same rights and benefits as every other citizen, is because we have blocked those groups out of the business model. They don't generate a profit, and they don't make the CEOs and upper management rich. The whole purpose of a business is to enrich the upper levels, to show a profit, to be accountable to a group of wealthy shareholders. The average employee barely makes enough to scrimp by while carrying the business on their backs.

That model, that way of thinking needs to be abandoned.

Let's consider what a country is and build a new model that actually addresses the needs of the citizens.

Our Founders had that opportunity, but we don't. We have to work with what we have, and what do we have?

We have a huge country, with lots and lots of subdivisions.

We have a vast land where the primary resource is undervalued and treated as disposable. That resource is people. While it's true that people are born only to die, there's a lot between birth and death that flat out is wasted because we operate under a government that takes business as its role model.

The first step in turning this around, to utilizing all of our vast resources and bounty is to remember that all citizens count and they all should have access to the same care and consideration of our government. No one group should be elevated above another when it comes to having their needs addressed.

The next step is to consider what the actual, universal needs of every citizen are. I can give you my ideas: we all need food, shelter, employment, transportation, an untouchable retirement fund, safety in conducting our daily activities, and access to affordable healthcare.

I'm still pondering, so I'll end here.