A short discourse on the effects of "running government like a business."

Had the singular pleasure yesterday of meeting some of our state's environmental commissioner. When I say "singular pleasure," I mean it in the same way that drinking month-old milk is a singular pleasure. In other words, not at all.

When various conservative politicians sweep into office and announce that they want to "run government like a business," I'm all for it. I'm making a blanket statement here, but government is woefully inefficient thanks to the fact that it's the government and it doesn't have to make itself better, while private industry must make itself more efficient to survive and thrive. Why shouldn't government do the same just out of principle?

Granted, "lean" initiatives and "continuous improvement" have become buzzwords at the government facility where I work. The complaints against these from the rank-and-file, though, are nearly universal. I've been in one "lean event" during my employment there*, and it was a week of my life that I'll never get back. On the one hand, you have "continuous improvement" being shoved down your throat at every opportunity: from the moment you drive through the security, the message board touts "continuous improvement" as the way forward. On the other hand, "continuous improvement" butts up against "reality," which usually wins out in the end - usually sooner rather than later, when you don't get buy-in from the people who should be continuously improving.

Anyway, I'm off-track.

One of the consequences, though, of "running government like a business" is that, inevitably, the natural result of putting this theory into practice is that you end up with people like … our state's environmental commissioner.

I'm going to have to rethink this "running government like a business" concept. Maybe I shouldn't be so much for it if rude, inconsequential, ineffective middle managers will eventually rise to the upper echelon of government.

* - not counting the "lean event" I was in a couple of weeks ago where I got the flu and lost 15 pounds