Run Government Like a Business?

This is a quote from "Capitalism:  Servant or Master?" p.55

"My candidate for the Nine Most Terrifying Words would be these:  “I will make the government run like a business.”    

"This call of perennial foolishness echoes through the pages of political campaigning history. “I am a businessman – I know how to meet deadlines and payrolls, turn a profit, and I will make this government run like a business! Just elect me!” What’s wrong with this? Well, it is like plowing a field with an airplane instead of a tractor, kicking a mirror like a football, or frying your orange juice for breakfast."

And now, this just in to the Pretty Penny headquarters from "Governing", a magazine located at 1100 Connecticut Ave. N.W., Suite 1300, Washington, DC 20036 about Rick Scott, Governor of Florida:  

State Senator Aaron Bean recalls that during Rick Scott’s first few months in office, the governor of Florida held several events in Bean’s district without asking the local legislator to attend and stand alongside him.

“He’s getting better,” says Bean, also a Republican. “He’s not a politician. He was a CEO. He’s used to walking into a meeting and dictating what’s going to happen, then leaving and expecting everything to be done.”

Carol Weissert, a political scientist professor at Florida State University, also ascribes Scott’s apparent inability to win over Floridians to his lack of political experience. “The bottom line,” she says, “is that business is just so different from politics. The skill set is so different. Just because somebody’s a good businessman doesn’t mean they’ll be a good governor, and I think we’ve seen that with Scott.”

Capitalism:  Servant or Master?"
http://www.johnhwomack.com/John_Womack/Capitalism.html

Special Police?

What is a "United Special Police"?  They are part of a rapidly growing number of private, corporate "police forces" springing up across America designed to protect property of the people who hire them.  Here is one I photographed in Hickory a couple of days ago.   The car is marked "United Special Police", and it sports a private license plate that is carried on a specially modified "Police Interceptor" body.    This one is probably out of Morgantown, NC.  These private police forcers are prime candidates for the New American Problem of guns in our public schools.   One of the special projects that these private police forces can do is to provide protection for our schools.  Are they affiliated in any way with the NRA?  Or the Koch brothers, or the other corporations that stand to profit from American kids being shot down and killed in their classrooms?   These Special Police can also "patrol" shopping malls, theaters, restaurants, and so on almost without end.

Quoting from p.21 in my book "Capitalism:  Servant or Master?",  
"Private security guards have outnumbered government police officers since the 1980s.  Coordination between private and official agencies often ovelap and the private agencies now perform work previously assigned to official agencies.(2.4)  Wackenhut for example has contracts to guard the Internal Revenue Service, the General Accounting Office, the Federal Reserve, Oak Ridge National Security Complex, Savannah River nuclear plant, Jet Propulsion Laboratory,  even Fort Bragg, and this is not a complete list.  They also have various resouces devoted to airports, ports, and specialized Global Response Teams and Executive Protection Services, etc. 

         Wackenhut, DynCorp, Blackwater, Triple Canopy  are four of about forty-five “Private MIlitary Firms” that can be found on a “partial list”. (2.5)  There are recurring reports that some members of local police forces leave their jobs to begin work with the private police forces which pay more money and have fewer regulations."

The reference quoted as FN 2.5 is here:  http://www.privatemilitary.org/private_military_companies.html

Invitation to Talk

Here is an invitation to anyone who might wish to enter their comments about the purpose of government, the role of capitalism and its corporations.  Other comments about Adam Smith and his book "Wealth of Nations" or Ayn Rand and her book "Atlas Shrugged" are welcomed.  I am looking forward to meeting people who have real concerns and are willing to ask questions and carry a discussion. Personally, I feel that the root of democracy is discussion and interaction.

American Corporations NEED War

From "Capitalism:  Servant or Master"  by John Womack.  page 93:  We pretend our nation strives for peace and will not attack other nations unprovoked, yet we will fight to protect capitalism and we have fought, in our brief existence, the countries of Britain, France, Germany, Russia, Spain, Mexico, China, Iraq, Iran, Korea, Japan, Italy, Panama, Philippines, Cuba, China again, Korea again, China yet again, Guatemala, Indonesia, Cuba again, Guatemala again, Congo, Lebanon, Peru, Cambodia, Chile, Laos, Guatemala yet again, Grenada, Libya, Honduras, El Salvador, Nicaragua, Panama again, Iraq again, Sudan, Afghanistan, Yugoslavia, Columbia, Vietnam, Cambodia again, Laos again, Iraq yet again, Afghanistan again, Libya, Pakistan, our own Native  Americans, the African slaves and Asian coolies we imported to our own country, and we’ve fought each other too.  And this is only a partial list.  Yes, we pretend we are a peaceful nation while more and more of our businesses and corporations are increasingly involved in the machinery of war and these corporations NEED more wars and combat operations to continue to increase their profits. (FN 10.3)  http://washingtontechnology.com/toplists/top-100-lists/2009.aspx

www.johnhwomack.com/John_Womack/Capitalism.html‎


There are always other issues involved too.  If we are genuinaly attacked by another nation, immediate response is required.  That response can be pre-authorized, particularly if the attack was in or around Washington, D.C.  When the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor our congress declared war the following day and then we fought the two most powerful nations on earth and defeated them both in less than 5 years.   Since then we have been fighting small nations in long wars that keep dragging out. These "small, long" wars cost us fortune after fortune and ruin life after life but make incredible amounts of Profits for some of our richest corporations.  

We are left with no money to educate our children,  no money for our own health care, no money for improving our highways and bridges.  We are told that money for Social Security will have to be cut, unemployment compensation will be cut and shortened in duration.  We have even  instituted the dreaded sequester!  Cruz, Paul and others want to shut our government down and default because we have no money to pay our debts.  But War?  Did someone say War?  We might have a War?  Oh good! Its about time!

There may be something else involved here.  And I am asking a question I don't have the answer to:  How much of this attack on Syria is related to Israel's needs?

The real question is who is making this decision?  It CLEARLY does not seem to be Obama.  This issue is dividing the Democratic Party and did not need to happen.  The issue should not be whether or not America will strike Syria, but whether the civilized nations of the world will enforce their collective will.  America has been absent from trying to shape the "will of civilized nations" for too long.

Profit or Pollution?

When corporations say they could reduce pollution but that that would mean higher prices for us, they are really saying that their pollution is OUR fault.  They are saying that we would rather have their pollution, get poisoned from it, get sick, and pay higher medical bills than to pay higher prices for the items they sell us.  Also, corporations are not expected to “discover” that their products are harmful to their customers, and other people who breathe and drink that pollution.  In fact, we expect the corporations to hide what they DO know and then deny their knowledge of it when caught. This translates into another cost of government.

And there is another cost that we all bear when corporate entities declare profit by refusing to pay the real costs of production.  This refers to the “problem” of  “illegal immigrants”.   Almost all of these people who came north into the American southwest seeking jobs got jobs.  They were hired mostly by rich farmers and commercial corporations involved in factory farming, canning, meat processing and so on.  

These corporations said that Americans wouldn’t work for “those wages”, implying that “those wages” had been set by supply and demand (you know, Free Enterprise?), so they HAD to hire these illegals.  By not paying wages that would attract American workers, these corporations were not only able to reduce the costs of their products AND increase their profits but also to shift their labor force “overseas” without actually GOING anywhere.  Also,  it has been pointed out that illegals were more inclined to work under dangerous conditions than American workers would, and if they were injured or became sick they either kept on working or took care of each other, or they just went back across the border and disappeared.  Less worry for the corporations, less “complications”, less cost of production, more profit.

And now suddenly,  we have discovered an "illegal immigrant" problem, and a "serious problem on our southern border" requiring a vast military expenditure.  

Capitalism: Servant or Master?

By John Womack

eBook (ePub): $3.99

Download immediately.

For more information see page 72.

New York Times today had an article today about the unequal representation of the United States population in its Senate and how that affects the ability of the people to govern themselves.  http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2013/03/11/us/politics/democracy-tested.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0

This article echoes a concern raised last year in my book "Capitalism:  Servant or Master?"  p.83


 "Corporations also have an easy way to penetrate their power into the United States Senate.  Consider that the 2 and a half million people who live in the states of Wyoming, Vermont, North Dakota and Alaska have the same voting power in the senate as the 100 million people who live in California, Texas, New York and Florida. To put it another way, each person in Wyoming has the same clout in our Senate as 70 Californians.  Or put another way, the top nine states in population contain slightly more than half of the total population of America. But they are represented by only 18 of the 100 senators. Or to put it still another way, the twenty-five lowest-population states contain less than one-sixth of the total population. But they have half the senators - the other half of the senate represents 5/6 of the US population. " http://www.johnhwomack.com/John_Womack/Capitalism.html

Capitalism: Servant or Master?

By John Womack

eBook (ePub): $3.99

Download immediately.

Governor McCrory Wins Rare Award

A rare tribute to Governor McCrory, newly arrived in Raliegh to steer the ship of the state of North Carolina through the rough seas of Democracy as it navigates the Straits of Capitalism.  He wins the presentation of the rare award of the "FlySwatter and Bat" trophy which is only received upon the achievement of a statement that significantly reveals the level of his understanding of the problems that infest the world.

Congratulations Governor McCrory.  This "honor" is presented to you for your comments on TV two days ago that you were drafting legislation to shift higher education funding toward career-oriented fields and away from academic pursuits that have, in your words "no chance of getting people jobs".  One of the first objectives of Capitalism, when it begins to take charge of any government, is to make its economy the most important aspect of life in that community.  As far as education is concerned, what Capitalism wants for Education is for its students to be trained to know facts and answers and be able to carry out the wishes of its corporate components.  Governor McCrory, you have been trained very well.   Congratulations!  And, oh yes, Swat! Bam!

http://www.johnhwomack.com/John_Womack/Capitalism.html