Business

 

Taking Care of Business

And I'll be taking care of business (every day)
Taking care of business (every way)
I've been taking care of business (it's all mine)
Taking care of business and working overtime, work out

Is the Business of America, Business?

The business of a business is to make money, to seek the user equilibrium of their business. The business of America is America, not business, to ensure that a system equilibrium is reached and to ensure that each individual, including businesses, have the resources available to be able to do business. This may mean spending money on the group rather than making money on every transaction.

In order to do business, those businesses have to access to goods. Goods are classified in two dimensions by economists: rival (priced) and exclusive (only one person can use that good), not just one dimension as private and public property. There are private goods, and those are priced and exclusive, using a good prevents another from simultaneously using that good. Government, the group, has a role in ensuring that private priced and exclusive goods are not taken without compensation. That is why there are crimes against stealing and a police force to deter that theft. There are Public Goods and those are unpriced and nonexclusive. Government has a role in ensuring that everyone has access to those goods. Individuals can not demand access fees from others to public goods.

It gets more complicated for Common Resources, which are unpriced but exclusive. These are not necessarily free or unlimited. Businesses may not be able to function unless these resources continue to exist. An educated workforce is one example. Each business may depend on, take advantage of, but not pay for, the education of the workers that it employs. But that education has a cost which is covered by the government with no expectation that it will make a profit, or even cover those expenses.

It also gets more complicated for Club Goods, also called Public Monopolies, which are priced but nonexclusive. While they are priced, using that good does not prevent others from also using that good.  Unless they are protected in some fashion, those goods may not be produced. Government may license those goods, for example a cable TV system, or may issue copyright or patent protections to ensure that these goods are not copied without compensation. The government may not receive a profit or even cover the expenses for the license, copyrights, or patents.

Why is this an issue? The Constitution says that a Postal Service will be provided to ensure the free exchange of ideas among all of its citizens. It may not be profitable to make this service available to citizens living in rural areas. But we currently have a businessman in charge of the United States Postal SERVICE (emphasis puposefully added), who is discounting or curtailing rural service that does not make a profit. Duh,…. it is called service because it is NOT always expected to make a profit or even cover its costs. But that does not mean that it is not essential. No one is saying that a service should be provided at any cost, but a small loss does not mean that the service ( there is that work again) is not essential. And that is the difference between America and a business, America seeks a system equilibrium, an a buisness seeks an individual user equilibrium. Taking care of business means respecting and cherishing that difference.  In other words, viva la difference.