It struck me that what we are seeing happen to the U.S. Government is something that would not be considered strange or unprecedented in another context. Consider a few things:
- A freeze on spending, with draconian budget cuts
- Entire divisions shut down, merged, or transferred
- A purge of leaders
- Installation of loyalist replacements
- Cancellation of long-running programs
- Mass firings
- Assets being set up for looting
- Manipulation of accounting numbers
- PR bullshit that this is all to increase efficiency and save money
- Diversionary attacks on others and previous leaders, to blame them for problems
- The sense that no one can stop it from happening — it’s just how things work
Where do we see things like this happening routinely? Where do we see this treated as something that’s considered acceptable — desirable even?
This is what it looks like when vulture capitalists descend on a company and loot it.
This is a hostile takeover — applied to government.
This is what they truly mean when they refer to running government like a business.
There’s a lot of bullshit that capitalism and free markets are inseparable from democracy, but the truth is no business is run like a democracy. Workers don’t get a vote. They do what they are told or they are out the door. Dissenting opinions are not welcome. Executives have no responsibility to workers or customers or communities — just shareholders.
And here we are — if we let them keep doing it to us.
