Donald Trump leads in the polls with 23 percent of Iowa Republicans, while Rand Paul, the most libertarian candidate of the bunch, scores a measly 4 percent. Perhaps the “libertarian moment” is already over.
The Antiplanner won’t comment on many of the things candidate Trump has said, other than they are often ridiculous. But one thing said about Trump is that he would make a better president because he is a businessman, not a professional politician. People apparently imagine that Trump’s business experience would make him a better guardian of taxpayer dollars.
In fact, there’s no reason to expect that. People who think business people would make good political leaders are confusing business with economics. Economists ask, “are the benefits greater than the costs?” and “who benefits and who pays?” Business people don’t ask these questions; they only ask, “can we generate revenues greater than costs?”
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Thus, someone who promises to “run a government like a business” isn’t promising to end deficit spending or stop ridiculous projects whose costs are far greater than their benefits. They aren’t even promising to cut costs by doing such things as renegotiating union contracts or streamlining environmental regulations. After all, businesses see unions and regulations as just a “cost of doing business,” and so long as the costs apply to everyone, they actually benefit big businesses that can more easily absorb them than small ones and thus reduce competition.
On the other hand, Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker famously (or infamously) stood up to teachers’ unions. But Walker is a professional politician, having first run for office when he was 22 and first won office when he was 25.
So you may support Trump because of his stand on immigration or other issues. But don’t support him because you think that, as a businessman, he will take a more reasoned stand towards deficits and boondoggles. He’s already demonstrated that he won’t.
Speaking of business, how many bankruptcies has Trump had?
Rand Paul is not a libertarian. He’s a pandering conservative. The libertarian moment is not over; it just isn’t being represented in politics, which is a good thing. Becoming a sleazy politician won’t change anything; Washington corrupts anyone who tries to change it. The libertarian movement is alive and well and largely an intellectual movement.
Dang. I was hoping we’d get through the election cycle without a Trump post on the Antiplanner.
You can’t run a government like a business because government is not a business. That being said, many of our major problems (including transportation) have been caused by governments and politicians running businesses and making business decisions–with taxpayers holding the bag for their failures..
As this site mentions almost daily, governments get involved in trying to start railroads etc. and when you show the costs don’t work, they claim it is for economic development. They are supposed to be governing, not running businesses that compete with real businesses. And not telling (or bribing) businesses where and how to develop or run their businesses.
Get the government out of business and back into governing and we won’t need businessmen telling government how to operate.
“Get the government out of business and back into governing”
As long as government transfers wealth, it will be in business. it won’t be until government has destroyed all wealth that it gets out of business.
I’d be extremely leery about voting for a businessman who seems a bit too eager to embrace the bankruptcy process as a solution to his financial problems. Having someone like that “run government like a business” would be a disaster.
“…business people don’t care where the revenues come from.”
Are you f-ing kidding me? Hey AP, you may live in the middle of nowhere, but there is still a grocery store, a gas station, a pharmacy, etc. that sorta cares about where their revenues come from. Partly from you. Your spending is their revenue. And they’re not business people?
I don’t necessarily agree with those people. I think the key to being a successful POTUS is executive experience i.e., demonstrable success running very large organizations, something arguably Trump has. So do several other GOP candidates and at least a couple of the Dem candidates. Who doesn’t have this is the guy sitting in the White House now. He came in as a junior US Senator and came into that job as a state senator. But he was never responsible for managing any kind of large organization. And the proof is in his mediocre performance. Frankly, the guy would have a hard time managing himself out a paper sack, and the country is worse off for his tenure.
This argument has some merit. Walker talks a good game about reducing government spending but then turned around and endorsed a crony capitalist stadium deal. A businessman or businesswomen with integrity would see that deal for what it is, taxpayer dollars going to private interests, who in turn give money to the politician as campaign contributions.