I don’t entirely agree with you. Capitalism and democracy have been instrumental in making the world a better place. We’ve collectively lifted millions and probably billions of people globally, out of extreme poverty. Out standard of living is exponentially better than it was say 100 years ago, but even 50-75 years ago. That’s capitalism and democracy at work, and it’s clear in the parts of the world where those advances and achievements have come from.
The part I do agree with you, is regarding running the government like a business. I disagree with that for several reasons, but some of them are the most fundamental aspects of running a business. I don’t think that everything the government does should be profitable or should breakeven. That’s pretty significant point of departure from running a business, of course.
But one of the issues is that the people who always seem to say “we should run government like a business” have seemingly never run a business. Looking at how politicians allocate resources and capital makes me realize that I wouldn’t want them in charge of a business I owned. They can’t seem to prioritize, and make decisions based on ideology and emotion. Can you imagine owning a business like the provincial government, where regardless of the polices you espouse you have obvious, glaring problems. You talk about those issues with your employees and are really concerned about healthcare, education, revenue stability or other huge factors. The next day though, your employees are out there working to change license plates or drivers licenses. It’s appalling incompetence.
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