So just stop saying that would you?
Government was never intended to be businesslike. It was invented with a different purpose in mind. I'm not quite sure what that purpose was but nonetheless it has nothing to do with the principal of pricing mechanism that private markets naturally provide which directs goods and services to their highest value uses.
This was common knowledge as far back as 1944 when Ludwig Von Mises explained in his classic book "Bureaucracy" that any cost-benefit analysis of government is pointless because government bureaucrats have no way of allocating resources rationally, even if they wanted too.
The more government uses the private sector, which adheres to market forces, the better off we all become. As long as government continues to try and do more than it is intended to do the less efficient and economical it becomes. Oregon is a perfect example.
You should have ladled out this advice and wisdom to "The Lee" County Commission Tom, when it needed it most.
ReplyDeleteSee what happened?
And now, to put the pieces back together.
Wonder if the new Commission will be able to leave "Party Politics" and self-inflated senses of "Business Wisdom" at the front door of The Boyington Building and serve in the trust of those that put them there and in the interests of all?
I hope so and I will do all that I can to make sure they do.
You?
And by the way, all these new bells and whistles NNB has implemented won't work if you don't pay attention to them....in my view that is.
Sorry, meant to put this in to reinforce your thought as to why government, at any level, cannot be run like a private business...Quoting economist Steve Horowitz:..."what is vital for entrepreneurs to be successful (i.e. market prices, profit and loss signals) are absent from government:
ReplyDeleteThe institution of profit and loss (in the private sector) rewards those who are good economic calculators and efficient resource users, and punishes those who are not. Those who survive develop further the skills the system rewards.
Move those same people to the public sector and they lose the private property that connects their fate directly to the economic consequences of their decision making. They also lose the prices and profit signals that inform them about which sorts of action might be the most efficient. No matter how smart or skilled they were in the private sector, thrown into the public sector, businesspeople are denied the incentives and information that made their success possible."
It also bolsters why "The Media" needs to stay detached, unbiased and impartial from certain issues.
Great point Tom!
ReplyDeleteAnyone that has studied Public Administration understands this point. Government entities operate under different rules, proceedures and funding than for-profite business'/entities.
Brilliant move this morning Tom, intentional or not, asking a "Tea Partyer" to give us some solutions as to how they would change our government.
ReplyDelete