Business is the activity of making one’s living or making money by producing or buying and selling goods or services. Simply put, it is any activity or enterprise entered into for profit.
Government is authoritative direction or control and the complex of political institutions, laws and customs through which the function of governing is carried out. There is more within the Miriam-Webster definition similar in meaning, none of which end in “entered into for profit.”
Our government is not a business and was never meant to profit. In fact, the Preamble to the Constitution reads, “We the People of the United States, in order to… establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity….”
At Gettysburg, Lincoln redefined the Civil War as a struggle not just for the Union, but also for the principle of human equality with his words, “…that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom — and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.” Government should promote the general welfare of all persons equally, and promoting the general welfare comes at a cost.
Our social and economic policies remained a backdrop of government and did not come to the forefront until Warren G. Harding. Harding promoted pro-business and anti-immigration policies, and enacted deep tax cuts for big business and the wealthy. (Sound familiar?) When Harding died in office, Calvin Coolidge inherited his scandal-ridden office during a period of pronounced materialism and excess. Coolidge succeeded in ridding the administration of corruption, but his economic policies did little to boost the economy or alleviate the suffering of the average citizens. The tax increase that he introduced in 1929 was too late to avert the crash of the stock market, which at the start of Herbert Hoover’s administration, culminated in the Great Depression .
Hoover’s nationalistic policies only worsened the Great Depression. He was unable to lessen the severity and suffering of millions Americans. That took Franklin D. Roosevelt’s New Deal spelled out by the three basic principles of relief, recovery and reform through programs designed to create jobs and most importantly, renew hope. Some of these programs included the Works Progress Administration, the Social Security Administration, and aid to farmers and migrant workers.
While Roosevelt’s programs were successful, poverty continued to impact large swaths of our citizens and slowed the growth of our national economy. The greatest and most far-reaching achievements in improving the lives of American citizens and boosting the economy came thirty years later with the introduction of Lyndon B. Johnson’s “War on Poverty,” seen as a continuation of Roosevelt’s New Deal. The legacy of the War on Poverty policy initiative continues to exist through such federal programs as Head Start, Volunteers in Service to America (VISTA), TRiO (eight education programs administered through the Department of Education), and Job Corps. Other programs include Medicaid and Medicare.
While critics pointed at the growing number social welfare policies and safety net programs and labelled America a “welfare state,” what could not be denied was the overall improvement in the quality of life for millions of Americans and the improvements in the national economy as measured by the growth domestic product (GDP). Over the years, social and political events created fluctuations in the GDP growth rate but placing the welfare of citizens first has always worked best for our people, our economy and our nation.
The current economic policies under Donald Trump echo Harding’s years in office. Once again, we witness pro-business and anti-immigration policies, and deep tax cuts for big business and the wealthy. Other similarities to Harding’s administration are the evidences of materialism, excess and the extreme corruption of our politicians. The deficits are made up eliminating some of the social welfare policies created to protect the poorest and most vulnerable Americans, and through deep cuts into other programs that serve as a safety net to millions of citizens.
How do we as American citizens remind our politicians that our nation is a government of the people, by the people and for the people and not a business? Government should serve the people, not corporations or the wealthy. We have become a plutocracy instead of a democracy. We buy into the business model of government even though the two words don’t belong together in the same sentence.
Barrack Obama guided our nation out of the 2008 Financial Crisis but most of the safe-guards put into place to prevent another from occurring have been lifted. The disparity in wealth is increasing while the middle class is shrinking. If history bears out, get ready for a crash bigger than the Great Depression. We should pray for another Franklin Roosevelt or Lyndon B. Johnson although that may not be enough. If we cannot learn from what happened ten years ago, how can we take to heart the lessons of nearly 90 years past?
Note: Homelessness is on the rise for the first time since 2010. In 2017, nearly 554,00 people were homeless. Of those, over 184,00 were families with children and over 40,000 were veterans. In 2017, ‘Feeding America’ network reported, “41 million Americans struggle with hunger, a number nearly equal to the 40.6 million officially living in poverty.” This administration believes that despite these statistics, cutting social safety net programs will improve our national economy and that these cuts are necessary and reflect good business practices.
dottieriley 