A very charming and intelligent letter writer has made a judgmental misstep that, hopefully with her indulgence, I would like to address. (I admit to a very soft spot for accountants.)
She stated that business people are unsuited for government, because they believe in bigger government, higher taxes and fewer property rights.
My political experience, Republican, began with Eisenhower and was amplified by party involvement beginning in the late 1960s and continues. My career included a 36-year span with a large company. So, I’m a businessman.
Early on, I remember exhorting my corporate colleagues that political involvement provided a graduate course in persuasion. Holding no constraining pay slips, one had to convince cohorts and voters of ideas and policy positions, or they could just walk away.
Later in my career, I spent 13 years working on unravelling a global web of double and triple taxation, custom duties, overbearing regulatory requirements and rampant theft of my company’s intellectual property. After my company retirement, I spent an additional four years as head of a private sector organization doing the same for business all over the world.
I never came across a businessman with objectives corresponding those three self-defeating beliefs. In fact, bigger government and the resulting higher taxes are like a lead-cost impact on a company’s bottom line that must be offset by cuts elsewhere, none of which are without pain.
As you read this, the primary election will be over, but I hope you won’t think ill of us business types.
