Beware the coupling of government and business

As an African American, I get uneasy when government and business are in bed together because of history. Here’s a new bit from the 19th century just published in 2019 by a British professor of sociology, Mark Harvey. His research shows that even though England outlawed slavery in 1834, in 1860 “A flagship of the industrial revolution, the Lancashire mills, and 465,000 textile workers, were entirely reliant on the labour of three million cotton slaves in the American Deep South.” 

That means it took more than six enslaved Black Americans to keep one white person working in a factory in England. And the whole scheme enriched people in two countries: in America, where the government still allowed the enslavement of Black people, and in England, where a few people, no doubt those close to royalty, owned the means of production. 

My people were the Blacks. The rest of the people were capitalists.

I write history, but when I taught writing, every semester at least one of my students —  always a young white guy — wanted to argue that because the U.S. government spends money (an estimated $6.75 trillion in fiscal year 2024), it is a business. Therefore, his argument went, it makes sense to run government as a business, i.e. elect businesspeople to be in charge, especially as president.

In 2024, many of the 49.8% of American voters who elected Donald Trump as president, again, agreed. They loved his tough business rep, and I imagine the title of his book “The Art of the Deal.” That despite the stories that sounded like Trump’s business philosophy was a recipe for an omelet: break some eggs.

Again, my people being enslaved were the eggs. We are braced against being that again. And are telling friends, take care it’s not you.

As for government being a business, just look to the U.S. Constitution. It says the U.S. government’s purpose is to establish justice, ensure domestic tranquility, promote the general welfare and secure the blessings of liberty.

That is far from the purpose of business in a capitalism system which is marked by a doctrine of laissez faire (French for free market): offer goods and services and see what the market will bear. Responding, the market says, caveat emptor: Latin for “let the buyer beware.”

So, how is Trump the capitalist businessman governing? The one-month report: causing worry, distress and terror. New bosses come to the office all the time, but never one who fired 10% of the staff on day one. That’s good for productivity, and morale? Never.

Ensure domestic tranquility.

U.S. government often frustrates, but eventually it returns to its purpose. Big business, however, needs to get slapped down. Take Rite Aid Corp., for instance. 

Rite Aid’s business purpose was to provide pharmaceuticals according to the law to help ill and injured people. The purpose was not to get them strung out on addictive drugs, making them into fiends and junkies, ruining lives, families and communities. Its purpose was not to make money.

Promote the general welfare.

The drugstore chain illegally filled opioid prescriptions, USA Today newspaper reported, fueling a drug epidemic. The lawsuits that followed helped force the business into bankruptcy. The result was it no longer was able to operate, and that deprived the whole entire state of Michigan, and other states, of its services.  The courts of law started making Rite Aid’s opioid victims whole. Government’s job is to call business on its crap.

Establish justice.

There is nothing wrong with a business dream. Most people have one. Mine is to spend $2, win the lottery and help build a mass transit system in Michigan.

Most people’s capital is their body. And finally with the Civil War and the 14th Amendment to the Constitution, African Americans got theirs.

Men can turn their bodies into opportunity and wealth. Jalen Hurts, Black man quarterback of the Philadelphia Eagles, Omega Psi Phi member, used his strong body and his quick mind to win Super Bowl LIX, respect and a $51 million annual contract.  Fifty-two years ago, the 1972 federal law Title IX, helped women athletes.

Secure the blessings of liberty.

Today though, compared to their male counterparts, 99% of professional women athletes are underpaid.

In this Trump era, will money be the only way to fulfill our country’s purpose? Will that be the mark of effective government?

In 2020, at the outbreak of COVID, Donald Trump was also the president. Just last week, the National Bureau of Economic Research reported the Social Security trust fund increased by $205 billion because the estimated 1.7 million people in the U.S. 25 years and older who died from COVID won’t be alive to collect benefits.

Trump didn’t kill them outright. His administration just dismantled an epidemic response program designed to deal with such a situation. It was set up by Barak Obama.

Secure the blessings of liberty.

Most of us survived Trump’s first term, but in his second term some of us will go out of business. From measles. Yes. Measles are back. Trump’s health and human services secretary, Robert Kennedy Jr., doesn’t believe in vaccines. Though our government’s research developed a measles vaccine in 1963, 61 years ago.

Promote the general welfare.

Business knows what’s best for the people? Or, for short-term profits? No matter who is president, the federal government should stick to its purpose, do its job.

(Dedria Humphries Barker is the author of “Mother of Orphans: The True and Curious Story of Irish Alice, A Colored Man’s Widow.” Her opinion column appears on the last Wednesday of each month.)