Sorry to inform you, it's foolhardy to believe Politicians work "for" you

Rick Lowe

In spite of the rhetoric, take it from me, politicians do not work the citizens of their country. They can't.

Politicians are elected to carry out their agenda as outlined in their platform or manifesto, and issues that arise during their tenure, and while some of these might overlap between the different political parties, like infrastructure etc, there are distinct differences and some people will like what the governing party does and others won't.

But they do not work for us as we work for our employer. The system would not work at all if that were the case. Why? Because we would be firing politicians almost weekly because one politician does what you like, but I dislike it, and vice versa.

So when a politico says he or she works for you or will work for you if elected, ask them how when so many people want or expect something different from government. They simply cannot please everyone.

As for politicians attempting to portray themselves as a businessman and telling you the government should be run like a business, (I used to agree with this statement), they're still politicians and can't run the government like a business. Businesses cannot force you to support them.

As Dr. Thomas Woods points out in this article:

"...Since government lacks a profit-and-loss mechanism and can acquire additional resources through outright expropriation of the public, it has no way of knowing whether it is actually satisfying consumer demand (if it is concerned about this at all) or whether its use of resources is grotesquely wasteful. Popular rhetoric notwithstanding, government cannot be run like a business."

Dr. Ludwig von Mises Bureaucracy, available here,,, explains it very well.

Maybe they can run government departments more efficiently and stop wasting so much money, but there are constraints to running them like a business because those very same politicians defeat this approach by promising you everything you could ask for and then try to wriggle out once elected.

I'm reminded of a politico that called recently to tell me I was picking on him but he was sympathetic to business. Of course one of his comrades was telling someone else they supported the small man at the same time.

Mind you, this does not prevent a politico from hearing your complaint or request and looking into it and coming back to you with a reasoned response. But to believe that a politician works for you or me, is well, foolhardy and unworkable.

In the final, it is best for government to stick to a few things like Police, Justice and some infrasturucture that way we won't expect them to please everyone and all the divergent views among us will not matter.