• Lushed_Lungfish@lemmy.ca
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      2 days ago

      I couldn’t believe how many people don’t realize that a country literally CANNOT be run as a business.

      • tlmcleod@lemmy.ml
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        2 days ago

        It can, but it doesn’t mean it will be good or useful at all lol but I get what you’re saying. Government is for people, business is for profit. People and profit are not compatible as the purpose of the entity. Just look at the US Healthcare “Industry” for the most glaring example of this.

        • Lushed_Lungfish@lemmy.ca
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          1 day ago

          You’ve summed it up exactly. Business is for profit, government is for people. To expand slightly more on the thought here’s what I say:

          1. Unproductive members of a business are fired. You can’t do that with people. Well you can, but then we call that euthanasia or mass murder or other such things.

          2. A business is made up of folks that are, in the main, healthy, relatively trained and able to work. Assuming that the business is a good one and is one of those “one career” type things, you have them for about 35 years. A country has to take care of people from birth to death. So that’s like another fifty or so years.

          3. Everything that a business does and everyone it hires is (theoretically) there to help expand and grow the business and it’s associated profits. It doesn’t need things like a military which sucks up profit and is only used once in a while.

          4. A business doesn’t normally rely on its own employees to generate its profits. They might contribute, for instance Esso employees are probably paying for gas, but the vast majority of the profits are coming off non-Esso people.