Postcards: Would You Invest in the American Government if It Traded as a Public Company? (Part I)

What exactly is the business model of the United States? What products does it actually make. Let's break it all down...

Dear Fellow Expat:

If the U.S. government were a publicly traded business, would you invest in it?

Good lord, no, right?

Neither would I.

But let's think for a minute…

You'd have to ask yourself the first question: “What is the product they’re making?”

One could argue war, financial perma-crisis, cultural divides, popularity contests that exploit emotions, or constant empty promises.

After 42 years – and enough time in public policy and finance - I have to conclude the business of the government is to empower politicians and enrich bankers.

There's a sideline in hoping that the middle-to-lower classes and pensioners don’t notice trickle-down centralized planning doesn’t work for them.

These "products" were probably what P.J. O'Rourke was thinking when he wrote, “If government was a product, selling it would be illegal.”

So how do they do that?

How do they make all that… yeeuch?

What's the government's business model?

This isn't just a thought exercise. See, when you understand "how the sausage i…