I've been reading articles in which Republicans and Trump supporters are saying things like, "The government is wasting money, it needs to be run like a business", and lately with Elon Musks DOGE efforts "We're going to run government at the speed of business". I have, as usual, some thoughts.
First, as I researched this, I was surprised to find out that the phrase "government at the speed of business" has been around for a while...at least since 2018 and has been used at the state level by Republicans and Democrats. Generally it refers to making government more efficient and cost effective. I am all for eliminating waste and fraud where it exists. I am a taxpayer and I think it is reasonable for us to expect responsible use of our tax dollars. However, the government is NOT a business and should not be run like a business.
Businesses can declare bankruptcy and reorganize or go out of business. They can be purchased by other businesses. They can risk their own destruction in seeking rewards for their owners. Their owners may not care that much if the business survives or not as long as they can suck enough money out of it before it goes under. These kinds of things happen all the time and if a business goes away, other businesses are there or are formed to fill the market need if it exists. Business is a very destructive process. Companies are created, operate and fail in a never ending cycle.
Government is not like this. It cannot go out of business. It can't be purchased. It cannot fail and be started somewhere else under a different name. It does not have a profit motive. It exists to serve the citizens of the country. If it fails, chaos ensues....perhaps for a very long time.
Elon Musk may indeed cut a great deal of cost out of the government, but what will be left? Will the government be able to achieve its mission of serving its citizens? I see no evidence that any analysis has been done regarding who to let go and who to keep. Or that anyone has tried to determine how many people are needed to do the job effectively and with an acceptable level of customer service. We all know how poor customer service is from many businesses. You can't get in touch with a real person, you're on hold forever, you get shuttled around from department to department. This is the speed of business. Is this what you want from your government?
The way this is being undertaken is haphazard and dangerous. A good business would be thoughtful about a layoff and make sure the needs of the business were able to be met with the people that were left after the reduction in force. But Elon is just slashing away and acting like he knows what he's doing. He doesn't. Already he is trying to get air traffic controllers that were let go to come back to work. Air traffic controllers!!! Does anyone really think we had too many air traffic controllers?
The old adage is largely true, "You get what you pay for." Life is expensive. Good people don't work for nothing. If we insist on low cost, why would it be reasonable to expect anything other than low service? I hope that's not what we want. I think we want, expect and deserve our checks to arrive on time, our tax refunds to be processed promptly and our questions to be answered. But it ain't free.
Good luck out there....