Not a business?

In a reply to my Oct. 8 blog, the concept that the government is not a business was raised. In a big picture sense, that may be true.

But I might suggest that in the sprit of "if it looks like a duck, walks like a duck and quacks like a duck, there's a good chance it's a duck," I suggest that our government is a business.

The government certainly has many of the same functions of a business. And, as such, it needs to be properly managed. That is where we are falling short right now. Management is falling down on the job.

In my shop, as in just about any successful business, management never has a knock down, drag out fight in front of the employees. The leaders don't have their little temper tantrums in public. That all happens behind closed doors. Seeing your boss in a hissy fit, arguing angrily with the shop manager is not the kind of thing that inspires confidence in the employees. Nor does it do anything for their comfort level. It is counter productive and any sane manager would avoid it.

This, in my mind, is the biggest failure of the current administration. It seems to have lost touch with the art of politics, very similar to the art of management. It’s a lesson for us on how not to run a business.

D.D.