To The Reader’s Forum:

For decades, Republican leadership has touted the wisdom of running government more “like a business.” There may be some merit in looking to business to improve government efficiency and “customer service.” But how many businesses do you know that periodically shut down in protest when they don’t get exactly what they want? The grim reality is that the business of the “United States Inc.” can afford to shut down because it’s already a failing enterprise and its executives are embezzling hand over fist.

Many things fundamentally distinguish government from business: government serves as a check on the more rapacious tendencies of capitalism, protecting citizens’ rights, the environment, and the underpinnings of democracy. The disastrous effects of unregulated business activity were writ large in the late 19th / early 20th century of the “robber barons,” when businesses like the Triangle Shirtwaist factory put profit over people and 146 workers died in a horrendous fire, when Ohio’s Cuyahoga River was so polluted that it regularly caught on fire, when women had no voice in elections, and minorities were still second-class citizens, whether by law or by default.

If government is a business, it’s one where we are all customers and shareholders. The bottom line for business is to maximize profit, and as customers and shareholders of the United States, Inc., those dividends should come in the form of protection from crime and tyranny, the provision of healthcare and education, and the freedom to pursue happiness given equal opportunity. But under the current MAGA regime, the business of the United States Inc. is being gutted to enrich the President and his allies in the 1%. The rest of us are left with rescinded services, cancelled checks, and closed doors.

Even worse, Russell Vought, essentially the unelected CFO of the United States Inc., is on record saying that his mission is to inflict maximum “trauma” on hundreds of thousands of Federal workers–our neighbors across the country who work every day to provide the dividends and services we rely on from the United States Inc. What kind of “business” openly undermines and attacks its own workforce?

Meanwhile, MAGA works tirelessly (whether the country’s open for business or not) to undermine unions, scrap consumer protections and entire agencies established by Congress to provide benefits both at home and abroad, and allow “too big to fail” corporations to exert the sort of power over our daily lives that the robber barons could only dream of.

I wish I could say “here’s the solution.” I only know that the United States Inc.’s stock will continue to sink if we as customers and shareholders allow for “business as usual” under MAGA leadership to continue unquestioned and unchecked. If there’s one thing the MAGA regime still fears, it’s losing power. The good news: we can do something about that. There’s a big shareholder meeting in less than a month. It’s called Election Day, and we’re all invited to attend.

Eric Jackson-Fosberg

Falconer