Comments on: When Did Government Become a Business?

By: Mark Drapeau

Mark Drapeau — Sat, 28 Nov 2009 16:02:21 +0000

Thanks for the comments Erik, nice to get a European perspective on this.

By: Erik Jonker

Erik Jonker — Sat, 28 Nov 2009 06:19:12 +0000

I totally agree with Mark, also in Europe it’s an often overlooked point. This does not mean that government should not try to operate as efficient and effectively as possible. But that’s not the same as “running like a business” , that Ari mentioned. Even that is not the case in my view, simply because government operations have additional perspectives/values which are not necessarily present in a corporate context.

By: Ari Herzog

Ari Herzog — Fri, 27 Nov 2009 17:47:46 +0000

Government should be run like a business to improve the efficiency you alluded above. Government should not be a business.

By: Mark Drapeau

Mark Drapeau — Fri, 27 Nov 2009 17:38:27 +0000

You wrote about operations and management, human resources. Those are departments. I was writing about the notion of people calling the government a “business” which it’s not.

By: Ari Herzog

Ari Herzog — Fri, 27 Nov 2009 17:33:30 +0000

Fire Department? Army?

You wrote about government and business, as did I. Not individual departments.