It’s week three of Trump 2.0, and he and his shadow president, Elon Musk, are taking a hatchet to the federal government, causing chaos, uncertainty, and unease.
I think you correctly hit on something really important with regards to the difference between business and government. I've been talking about this for years. In this country, somehow it's considered 'gospel' to be behind the idea that 'running a government like a business' is an ideal to be achieved. Simply put, they have different goals entirely. Government is about SERVICE (of the people, by the people and for the people). Business is about PROFIT. Those are two VERY different goals. And sure, government can 'learn some things' from business with regards to efficiency, but making a profit is NOT the goal of government. Nor should it be.
The goal of business is to (a) charge as much as you can for something and (b) do as little as you can and/or pay as little as you can to create that 'thing'. It's right there in the typical corporate charter - to 'maximize profit for your shareholders'. (And you can tell these 'run the government like a business' crowd are not really serious about that - if so, they'd be talking about 'raising revenue'.... and of course, they aren't.) Government is more of an investment in its people, it's 'human capital' (in business terms) and the equation is simply quite different.
I find your commentary very holisitic in both criticisms and compliments to the overall political landscape we are currently living in with the US. I don’t know if I disagree outright with your assertion that the Democrats need to wait and pounce, but I feel the need to push back probably for the exact reasons that you outlined. People are already expressing distaste at many of Trump’s choices (however clownishly evil they are) on both sides, and it feels like a necessity to capitalize on that discontent because of the threats he poses and that his administration generally poses in the sense of violating basic principles like the rule of law or disregard for structural institutions that keep people functioning, rich or poor.
I sincerely hope that more people are not harmed in the meantime. That said, I agree that if things continue going in this chaotic state, there will be a backlash. Hopefully, that backlash will be strategically directed and organized to prevent further harm.
I didn’t vote for Trump (or the idiot). So far the budget cuts that Musk has proposed have been relatively modest compared to our massive national debt. My question is how do his critics themselves propose to deal with the debt crisis without major cuts in spending? None of them seem willing to address the problem. This rant well represents my own frustration with them.
Remember the days when you placed a stock trade and paid perhaps an $89 commission per stock trade? What happened to that? People were used to doing that and then, that simply disappeared. How about a simple $0.05 or $0.10 tax per stock transaction? I think something like this in combination with fixing the tax brackets could certainly help. Think about the sheer volume of stock market transactions that take place on a daily basis. We used to pay much, MUCH more and it would be a passive activity contribution to fixing the problem.
I think you correctly hit on something really important with regards to the difference between business and government. I've been talking about this for years. In this country, somehow it's considered 'gospel' to be behind the idea that 'running a government like a business' is an ideal to be achieved. Simply put, they have different goals entirely. Government is about SERVICE (of the people, by the people and for the people). Business is about PROFIT. Those are two VERY different goals. And sure, government can 'learn some things' from business with regards to efficiency, but making a profit is NOT the goal of government. Nor should it be.
The goal of business is to (a) charge as much as you can for something and (b) do as little as you can and/or pay as little as you can to create that 'thing'. It's right there in the typical corporate charter - to 'maximize profit for your shareholders'. (And you can tell these 'run the government like a business' crowd are not really serious about that - if so, they'd be talking about 'raising revenue'.... and of course, they aren't.) Government is more of an investment in its people, it's 'human capital' (in business terms) and the equation is simply quite different.
I find your commentary very holisitic in both criticisms and compliments to the overall political landscape we are currently living in with the US. I don’t know if I disagree outright with your assertion that the Democrats need to wait and pounce, but I feel the need to push back probably for the exact reasons that you outlined. People are already expressing distaste at many of Trump’s choices (however clownishly evil they are) on both sides, and it feels like a necessity to capitalize on that discontent because of the threats he poses and that his administration generally poses in the sense of violating basic principles like the rule of law or disregard for structural institutions that keep people functioning, rich or poor.
I sincerely hope that more people are not harmed in the meantime. That said, I agree that if things continue going in this chaotic state, there will be a backlash. Hopefully, that backlash will be strategically directed and organized to prevent further harm.
I didn’t vote for Trump (or the idiot). So far the budget cuts that Musk has proposed have been relatively modest compared to our massive national debt. My question is how do his critics themselves propose to deal with the debt crisis without major cuts in spending? None of them seem willing to address the problem. This rant well represents my own frustration with them.
https://x.com/tonyxtwo/status/1886958032552096211?s=46&t=U7laPY1hHEa798qtlcpDpA
You're confusing the debt and the deficit, but the latter can be dealt with through tax increases on people like Musk like in the 1990s.
Remember the days when you placed a stock trade and paid perhaps an $89 commission per stock trade? What happened to that? People were used to doing that and then, that simply disappeared. How about a simple $0.05 or $0.10 tax per stock transaction? I think something like this in combination with fixing the tax brackets could certainly help. Think about the sheer volume of stock market transactions that take place on a daily basis. We used to pay much, MUCH more and it would be a passive activity contribution to fixing the problem.