LET COMPANIES RUN GOVERNMENT  

On election day when citizens vote for their local Mayor and Council they choose people they know, or know about, to run community business. Those elected then hire staff and companies to do most of the work required to provide the public services elected officials think we need. Occasionally they do it well. Most of the time, judging from the spectrum of citizens who complain, they do it poorly.

Why not by-pass the middleman politician and directly hire a competitive company to handle it all? The financial savings could be tremendous.

Across North America, many things are not working well. Services and protections that governments were set up to perform are not being provided. At the federal level, no government is able to protect citizens at home or abroad against terrorism. Yet, the protection of citizens is the first duty of a government. No government is protecting citizens against job loss. No government is protecting currency against devaluation and fluctuations. Governments are unable to prevent the inflow of illegal and unwarranted immigrants. No government has been able to throw up a protective shield against environmental and cultural degradation flowing across borders. The list goes on. Isn't it time we consider a more workable alternative?

At the provincial level, to protect their positions and make it appear they are really needed, politicians have erected unnecessary barriers between provinces. Provinces long ago started acting like national states, some more than others. Since they act like federal governments do we really need them either?

At the municipal level, since we contract either with militant government employees who think they should run the government but without the risk of being tossed out at the end of four years, or with private companies in every increasing numbers, are they really indispensable? Do we really need local governments? Why not hire the ABC Company on contract, explain municipal goals and if they accomplish them they get the agreed-upon fee plus a bonus; if not they don't get paid.

Today there is almost no government job, with the notable exception of that of elected officials, that is not being handled somewhere under private contract. That includes such services as prisons (Pennsylvania), fire protection (Arizona), accounting, garbage collection (in almost all progressive communities), road maintenance and building cleaning. In Britain, airlines, railways, electrical services, and council housing have all gone generally and successfully into the private garden. The first noticeable result would be a drop in taxes as everyone and every company starts to pay taxes, instead of, as in Canada, only the private sector currently pays taxes while other governments do not. Hence, half the country lives off the other half. With contracts calling for best results under the threat of cancellation and non-payment, "municipal contracting companies" would have huge incentives to produce efficiently. As current unionized government employees demand more and more from a rapidly shrinking pie, drastic changes must be made. Whenever they get more, the rest of the population gets less. You really don't have to be a mathematician to figure out that one.

Who runs the best "government" in the world today? Disneyland. Everybody there is working. There is no crime. The place is scrupulously clean. People pay large sums just to enter the grounds. Everything works from communications systems to garbage collection and disposal to payroll and a viable environment. And that's not all. Others around the world plead with them to come to their land and provide the jobs, entertainment, and sustainable development they have exhibited elsewhere.

How do we describe, in a derogatory fashion, elected officials at a meeting: "It's Disneyland in there". Even Disney objects to the comparison, because it's simply not true.

Think about this. Perhaps our current cumbersome government system has run its course. As with logging, mining and fishing, it's time to find a better way.

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