First, a disclaimer: I'm not Republican, I'm not Democrat, I'm somewhere in the middle (which I think is the case for most Americans). I don't follow politics that much because the day to day drivel gets to be a little much for me.
Here's what it seems America needs at this point in time: a CEO...a Chief Executive Officer. We could avoid many of our current day problems if we starting running the country like a business.
Focus
Businesses focus on what matters. I already see the Republican Presidential candidates like John McCain, Mitt Romney, and Sam Brownback trading barbs about abortion, which has been a hot topic for Republicans for the last few elections. It seems it would take a Herculean effort to overturn Roe v. Wade...my intuition says it probably won't happen. Yet, these candidates continue to take valuable time to talk about their opponent's views on this lightning rod of a topic that most likely won't change. This would be like IT Departments around the country spending a month of their time on something like Daylight Saving Time...oh wait, bad example. A side note: did the government take into account the impact this seemingly innocuous decision would have on technology? Apparently, all we had to do was convince Al Gore to turn off the electricity in his Tennessee home for a week to get the same energy savings as this DST change. OK, I wrote that because I thought it was funny...climate change is bigger than Al Gore's house, sorry to deliver that message to all of the detractors.
Adapting to Change
Businesses, both large and small, usually go through a restructuring at some point to adapt to the current state of the market. When was the last time the government had a restructuring? Today's environment is vastly different than even 10 years ago, yet there has been little adaptation to change. Our government isn't run with cost as a primary consideration, and because of this, the financial future of the country is compromised. Yet, with the personal tax cuts from a few years back, we are led to believe everything is so good that the government is giving money back to us! It was purely a surface maneuver to make us feel good about the state of finances in America, yet behind the scenes there are stories of record deficits, future Social Security shortfalls, and the like.
A Government restructuring could mean a more efficient country, which could lead to significant cost savings, which cures a lot of problems for the future of the nation.
Pricing
The citizens of America are the customer in this scenario, and customers need a simple pricing structure. What if, the next time you go to Target, Best Buy, Dierbergs (a St. Louis shout-out), or wherever, it took you 20 minutes to check out (even though you only had 15 items) because the pricing was so complex? Ladies and Gentlemen...the US Tax System! The taxes we pay on cars, groceries, clothes, etc, are simple. Yet, when it comes to personal income taxes, you need a PhD in Accounting to figure it out. There's no one who could convince me that income tax needs to be as complex as it is...of course H&R Block, TurboTax, and the like would die trying. A business-like government that is focused on their customers would give us an uncomplicated pricing structure that was a lot easier to understand.
Bonuses
Leaders of most companies have some piece of their compensation tied to performance. It's well known that the President's salary is $400,000 a year...why not put some incentives in there with some bonus money tied to it? There are a million ways to quantify the job the President is doing (and I'm not talking about approval ratings, which seem to have some merit, but still seem so random) that would make this possible. I know there are many of you who say money shouldn't be a motivating factor in leading the free world, but if there are rewards for meeting specific objectives that better the country and the world, I can't imagine this technique would do any harm.
Succession Planning
I'm not talking about the government here (most of us have had enough of the Bush family) with regards to succession planning. I'm talking about the future of America...its youth. Here we are, spending billions of dollars for a war half a world away, yet public schools are in shambles. The struggles of the St. Louis City Public School System in particular give credence to this point. How can education not be one of the most important pieces of this country? And for those of you say, "oh, but it is", where are the results? You may find pockets of good schools and school systems (the Rockwood School District in the St. Louis Metro Area comes to mind), but for every success story, you have 3 or 4 negative stories about schools that need a lot of work. We owe it to the youth of America to give them a solid education, which will set them up for a lifetime of success, whatever "success" means to them. Start with paying teachers more...these fine people are trying to shape the future of our country, but are tremendously underpaid. Better pay means more peeps (and more qualified peeps) to choose from, which ups the ante in the classroom, which leads to a better education for our kids. I would love to be a high school teacher, but when I see the pay scales for educators in my area, I would have to teach for 15 years to get to my current salary...that's nuts.
Understanding Our Role In The Marketplace (aka "the world")
Imagine a 40 year-old person being told by a 10 year-old kid what to do with regards to their beliefs, their lives, and everything surrounding it. That's pretty much what we are doing in Iraq...your type of government stinks, ours is great, so let's go ahead and change the foundation of your country to make you like us. Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation, which ended slavery, is less than 150 years old. America still struggles with minority rights today, in 2007, yet we have the gall to tell countries that are centuries older than us how to do things. I firmly believe this is why so many countries in the world resent the United States. We are that cocky kid that thinks he has all of the answers...nobody (well, except his mother) likes this kid.
Customer Service
Quick question: when is the last time you heard about a positive experience when dealing with any department within the Government? A business exists because of their customers (we already know this). A business typically has customer service...the good businesses have excellent customer service. Why is it so hard to the Government to provide good customer service? I don't know the answer, but am most certainly interested.
Again, these are some of my surface observations. As I stated at the beginning of this post, I don't follow politics that closely. My hope with this post is to provide a sort of "everyman" perspective of the current state of our country...the way it looks from most peep's eyes. Do I really think turning the government into a business is the right thing to do? No way. Although, there are plenty of business principles that could be applied to get this thing to work better.
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