People in this country are really confused about how Government should function. Many think it should be run like a business. Indeed Government should be run like a well run business. But more importantly a well run business is a well governed business.
The reason people are confused about the relationship between business and government is that businesses are governing entities! When Government is run for the sake of Oligarchs only, it is tyranny and privateering!
The Lockean Definition of Tyranny is government for "private, separate advantage.":
We give the people within them the privilege of governing property, their own affairs and in return a sane society expects them to operate within the parameters of that title or charter. This corporate privilege allows Businesses to be run for the private separate advantage of the owners and senior management, within restrictions set by law. When everyone behaves it works for the greater good. When they don't, you get tyranny and privateering.
Government is a business of all the businesses, all the many factions and associations of the people within its jurisdiction. So it has to be run for the people's business, like a virtuous business, and not like a pirate camp.
Corporations are Government Entities
Corporations are government entities. They are created by an official finding after a legal filing. Ask any help site online and they'll tell you, all you have to do is to:
"File formal paperwork, usually called "articles of incorporation," and pay a filing fee that ranges from $100 to $800, depending on the state where you incorporate. Create corporate "bylaws," which lay out the operating rules for your corporation. Hold the first meeting of the board of directors."
Grant of Corporate Privilege
Corporations have been granted a real privilege and are in Business. A corporation is granted very real privileges, or else people wouldn't create them. Among these:
- Limited Liability
- Tax benefits
- Self Government
Any legal advice company will list more.
Corporations Govern
They govern property and employees. They have governors (an executive), a legislature (the board) and they use the courts for their judiciary. Most are not in any way exemplars of Republican Principles, much less democratic or commonwealth ones. COOPs, Partnerships, etc... also exist but they are hard pressed to compete with military style corporations.
Corporations are Privilege
Governing a corporation is a privilege. They also usually practice administrative law and are usually monarchical in their governance. Thus the owner or CEO is usually a monarch in practice. There may be limited democratic functions for the stock holders and board members, but it is not real democracy. Large Corporations treat their Chief Officers like Monarchs too.
Legal Limits
The CEO is Judge, jury and executioner for policies and employment decisions within his/her company. Local and National Governments try to set limits on what corporations can get away with. But anyone who has worked for a poorly governed corporation has experienced naked tyranny. Many folks claim that they want government run like a business, but I don't think anyone has in mind the sorts of poorly run businesses that make lives miserable for their employees. Corporations are Governing entities, but as currently constituted, most are dictatorships. They may be benign or perverse, but that is what they are.
Running Government like a Business
Thus Government can be Run like a Good business or a Bad one.
Running Government as bad business is destructive.
Bad Business
Some People advertise that government can be run like a business. Some claim that business can govern these things better than an elected Government. The result is that even the most libertarian or corporo-anarchist politician or operator wants to be Government and many run for office.
Afraid of Government?
When they get into office they then advertise the notion that people "should be afraid" of Government and they will cite Ronald Reagan's vicious joke:
"The most terrifying words in the English language are: I'm from the government and I'm here to help." [Reagan Brainy Quote]
For Conservative Government This becomes a self fulfilling notion as having no idea of the purpose, mission, or value of their agency, they often don't help anyone.
- For more on this see:
- http://holtesthoughts.blogspot.com/2015/10/reagans-subversion-of-four-freedoms.html
- Privateering on Higher Education
- Starve the Beast Destroy Humanity
Virtuous Government Versus Piratical (Vicious) Government
Grifter, Oligarchic an Pirtical politicians will lie and say they are "here to help" but their attitude is piratical. They are "here to help themselves." Virtuous governing principles depend on the virtue of those exercising power. No system is sailor proof. And no set of checks and balances can resist the depredations of corrupt pirates. It is a universal principle of principles, that they only work when executed.
Good and Bad Principles are Universal
The principles of good government are true within General Government, or local government, private agency, like corporations, or public agency like FEMA. They are true everywhere. But so are the principles of self aggrandizement, manipulation, propaganda and political warfare. Many dedicated public servants, like the ones at FEMA, really do help when they come from the Government offering to and delivering real service.
When the Pirates Come to Town
But when the pirates come, they come to serve themselves. This makes bad government a self fulfilling promise. When a libertarian who hates government runs an agency like FEMA, one gets incompetent administration. They will promise something for nothing. Take their cut. And pretend to deliver when the bill comes due. This is illustrated by the famous Quote of George W. Bush about Katrina when it hit New Orleans:
"You're doing a Heck of a Job Brownie"
You can only hide a swindle so long
He thought that people might believe him if he pretended it was true. Trouble is you can hide looting only so long. Eventually people figure out that they aren't wearing clothing and were sold invisible cloth when the storms come and the goods they need to survive just aren't their because the money was used to build a mansion somewhere or for flying a luxury aircraft.
Pirates In Government
I call people who enter government to get rich, loot or pursue destructive agendas Pirates. For good reason. Well Run Government does the people's business and looks out for everyone (real definition of commonwealth -- is government for the common good). Bad Government is always the same. Tyranny, misery, depression, and unstable government as people rise up periodically to try to get rid of the crooks, usually led by clever crooks pretending to be revolutionaries. Good Government can reinforce the kinds of systems that keep improving themselves. Bad Government negatively reinforces failure. Pirates in Government deserve to be hung. Though they rarely are.
Bad Business or Good Business
Thus Government can be bad business or good business. Unfortunately, Government run for, by and of Business interests only, is almost always bad business. Business is about commerce, and common good is better business. Who will buy a merchants goods if they are all broke? The bible says "don't glean the edge of your field," for a reason.
To repeat the reference to John Locke, when Government is run for "private, separate advantage", that is tyranny. Some business oriented politicians forget that and run governments as a tool for personal enrichment. It need not be that way. [See: Definitions Post]
The Behavior is Privateering
I call such behavior privateering because privateering was an early case of government granting private licenses to wage war on behalf of the Government, granting a "letter of Marquee" to Private Companies. Bad Business is a pirate tradition.
Example of the East India Company
If you don't believe me study the history of the East India Company. The East India Company was founded as a tool of privateering. It's Charter contained authorization to raise armies and wage private warfare in the territories where it operated. It was so successful it bankrupted the entire of Southeast Asia. It also was one of the causes of the American Revolt from Britain.
When privateers run government, or government functions, they run it for their own personal enrichment. They are not supposed to. But the Privateers of the East India Company, starting with Robert Clive, turned most of India into a corporate Empire, looted most of it, and left much of the place a basket case. They are proud of that history.
Privatization as Privateering
Contracting out to private persons can be good for limited and defined purposes. Privatization is privateering when government is turned over to private persons with no accountability, or the contracts are corrupt vehicles for rent seekers and private profit.
Good Pirates or Bad Privateers
Government calling on private businessmen to do what they are good at is not privateering. It is only when private businessmen and piratical officials abuse their trust, practice vice in contracting, or otherwise abuse their Trust that they become pirates. The only difference between a good Wig, and a bad Tory, is behavior. Ideology is just part of the con they use when they are on the hunt as pirates. When the cops are watching pirates transform themselves into "honest businessmen" "me mates." Good Government and Good business requires government regulation to have honest and uniform measures, constables to keep the stables clean and arrest miscreants, and courts to adjudicate disputes and punish those miscreants. When the courts, police and officials are corrupt, bureaucracy becomes a tool of a corrupt establishment. Good people get turned into outlaws & officials become legalized outlaws. The Pirates get hung, while the Privateers get the business done and loot everyone.
Little King John Versus Robin Hood
Bad Government is little King John versus Robin Hood. Good Government is "usufruct" and does no harm. Virtuous officials are like well trained Dogs. Pirates like wolves. The difference is in the virtue of vice of the officers of business and government. Law and Order is a slogan unless the police and courts can be disciplined. That is why people in crisis turn to heroes. It is also why corrupt times raise up dictators. Once a person is corrupted, they won't change their stripes. On the contrary they'll tell the people they are "here to restore order" and quickly act like (or employ) the pirates they promised to evict. Only a people refusing the allure of easy money (or having none left) can restore virtuous Government once it is corrupted.
Government small Enough to Drown in a Bathtub
Grover Norquist claims that Government should be
"Small enough to drown in a bathtub."
Yet he runs businesses and hires people to help him run them.
A Government small enough to drown in a Bathtub is a Dictatorship
The only government small enough to drown in a bathtub is a dictatorship. I've met a lot of folks who'd love to drown their bosses in a bathtub. Smaller government is not better government. Taking Government functions from professionals and giving them to family and cronies may seem like a good idea -- but it is the opposite.
The Scourge of Bureaucracy
That isn't want Grover means. To be Fair, the scourge he and other conservatives are referring to is Bureaucracy. Bureaucracy is a feature of any large government, including private companies. Executives hire assistants, who hire assistants and delegate functions to people they hire. A badly constituted bureaucracy is more lethal than an army. Indeed Armies have bureaucratic organizations, so bad constitution is lethal to the countries that organize poorly constituted bureaucracies.
Benefits and Drawbacks of Bureaucracy
The modern corporation is organized like a private army. Indeed it's model, the East India Company and similar, operated a private army, known as the Sepoys. From Britain's POV the East India Company was a model of good organization. Its footprint in Britain was small. All its bureaucracy was in India. The benefit of Bureaucracy is that it can employ professionals and operate professionally. The drawbacks of bureaucracy depend on the quality of the management of the organization. When Grover despises "big government" he ought to be despising Governments that hire too many people to do work poorly. However, smaller government may be a benefit of better government, but it is not in itself better government. Some bureaucracies are efficient and perform virtuously. Grover is an ideologue not a reformer.
Maybe Government Should be the People's Business
People with a Business Mindset are used to running their business for their own benefit. Businesses that are privately governed entities have the power to use and benefit from the fruits of their power (usufruct), and that is perfectly appropriate when the asset governed is appropriately personal property, their own capital and not part of the properties that come from nature.
Government has some duties private companies don't always have:
- Governments must be run for the General Welfare Not private separate advantage.
- Government Assets include property that the Government holds as trustee for the People as a whole, that should not be personal property.
- When the abuse of property results in it's destruction or harm to the community surrounding (or downstream) from it.
- When the optimal use of property must be regulated for long term sustainment.
- When the property is concerned with people for their life, liberty and common good and not solely as consumers.
- When the property is so valuable that private ownership infringes the rights and privileges of others.
When property is in public trust; parks, mineral or energy deposits, forests, deserts, etc... then the privilege of usufruct ownership is still appropriate but not the power to abuse or destroy. Privateering ownership of forests, ground resources, minerals, etc... has historically result in their wastage. People with no responsibility for property tend to have a loot it and move on attitude. So the notion that Government should be run like a business has a mighty caveat when it comes to commons and public trusts.
Example of Oil
The history of the Oil business is an example. The Oil business is a direct descendant of the Pirate Tradition. In pursuit of Profits, Sea Dogs would rape and loot on the high Seas as Pirates, smugglers, legitimate traders, slavers, etc... In the 1800s towns began to want to light their streets, to keep down crime and allow workers to work longer hours. They turned to whale oil. Whale oil became expensive, so the Sea Dogs of the 1800s turned from slave trade and piracy to hunting whales. They hunted Whales from the Arctic to the Antartic around the world, and hunted some to near extinction. Then someone figured out how to make kerosene and other whale oil substitutes from crude oil .... and that is how the oil business started! The oil business benefited from the pirate tradition. Unscrupulous speculators would buy mineral rights, defraud landowners. They regarded ecological disasters in oil rig "blow outs" as divine reward for their efforts. And they left a train of illness, disaster, economic privation and ecological degradation in their wake. But boy did they make money!
Taking it all
All over the country we have secondary forests because of reckless use of land resources. Forestry companies would come into a fallow area, cut down every single tree that had any value, and leave places that looked like moonscapes. Tall Tales blame Paul Bunyan for creating the American Prairie. That is an exaggeration. But it illustrates the "take it all, get rich quick and flee" "Grifter" nature of unregulated business. Unethical booms lead to desperate and violent busts. It's not new. But people get taken generation after generation by hollow promises and easy lies when the Grifter Pirates come to town, take it all, an move on before the townspeople realize they'd been conned.
Resisting the Lure of Privateering
tyrannical, monarchal businesses where the only accountability they have is to auditors, creditors, owners, and sometimes a subset of their stockholders. They thus are lured into thinking that government can be run like a business. When they get into politics they sell government as like a household. In some cases their businesses run like a household. Government does have to be run responsibility. But the owners of a country or subdivision are all the people and stakeholder of the jurisdiction being governed. Not a narrow set of investors who are creditors or owners. Nevertheless, our owner class makes this argument, while at the same time subverting the functions of government that would let it operate as a functional business.
Specifically we must resist certain kinds of privateering:
- Any public good turned over to private ownership, especially monopolies.
- Private Armies (sometimes disguised as "militia", or private use of public armies) versus volunteerism for public service.
- Private control over the public's money supply. The money supply should be sufficient for commerce.
- Concentration of Power in one family, in interests also taking wealth from it.
- Any private benefit from public power.
- Public debt incurred for private, separate benefit.
- Privileges granted with no obligation or duty to perform a public service in return.
Conclusion
So in conclusion the Government should be Run as "The People's Business", not "a business". When CEOs and the general public understand this, all is possible. If we continue to let pirates subvert this. We will continue to see bad business from our local and national Government -- and suffer from their tyranny and oppression.
Appendixes and Sources
- https://www.dpisd.org/cms/lib/TX01001079/Centricity/Domain/993/chap14.pdf
- http://www.hofstralawreview.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/12/CC.3.Jay_.final2_.pdf
- https://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/GPO-CONAN-1992/pdf/GPO-CONAN-1992-10-15.pdf;
- Brainy Quote: https://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/quotes/r/ronaldreag128358.html
- Usufruct:
- "Usufruct is a limited real right (or in rem right) found in civil-law and mixed jurisdictions that unites the two property interests of usus and fructus: Usus (use) is the right to use or enjoy a thing possessed, directly and without altering it."
- "Allodial title constitutes ownership of real property (land, buildings and fixtures) that is independent of any superior landlord. Allodial title is related to the concept of land held "in allodium", or land ownership by occupancy and defense of the land."
Businesses are self governing Entities
This post is still somewhat "drafty" but it is already too long, and I've edited it enough so it's not embarrassing.
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