Business and Politics

These past few weeks I’ve been mulling over my opinions on business and politics. Some could say I’ve been somewhat biased for business. Were there some double standards there? 

I’ve criticize the lawyers who defended Corona more because he is a lawyer, one of their own, than because of his innocent. I’ve expressed opinions against politicians whom I frown upon and there were/are a lot of them. But I’ve also laughed at the occupy Wall Street people and thought most of their picket signs were just ridiculous. 

Do I have a general beef against the establishment? I don’t think I do. But if you ask me, do I think the corporations, the bankers and the 1% were greedy? I suppose, I do. 

As everything else now blows up and the world economy further plunges (think of the recent Barclay and Libor scandals etc.), the more it is revealed that the financials systems have been rigged and manufactured all this time. In a way, the system fed on itself as financial institutions and instruments, insurance companies, the stock market, etc. were allowed to go about their (greedy) business ways until shit hit the fan. 

In my defense, I really did not respect the occupy people because in my opinion most of them were just angst. The movement became a mob mentality slash cool thing to do for people who had nothing better to do and after all the rallies and sit-ins nothing really happened since these people really had no concrete collective demand to speak of. It was like a tantrum of sorts, they were angst and they just wanted the establishment to know.

Perhaps it’s because I was once a banker and a business student. I am a business owner and I am not a lawyer, a government employee or a politician. 

I remember a friend of mine once told me that it’s part of the game. It’s a simple statement that everyone acknowledges, corruption and politics is part of the game, especially here in this country. That is, if you want to be successful in business, you have to climb, cheat and bribe your way in one way or the other, you cannot be clean. My friend’s reasoning was along those lines. 

My friend from time to time has also expressed this hatred for the current admiration. The motivation of which, I’m not entirely sure of. My friend has mentioned about this current government’s laziness and a whole lot of other random reasons for said hatred. 

I’m still not sure exactly why my friend prefers a different administration. I want to believe it’s something shallow like being straight is just so uncool but I suspect it’s because personal interests are better served with a corrupt government, with corruptible officials and systems.   

In effect, my friend was saying that business and politics are the same this way. You can’t make it either way if you chose to be clean. Maybe that’s true but I suppose it also depends on what your definition is of success is (another topic that could be discuss some other day).   

But I guess my point is this: The very existence of business is that it’s meant to make money while the very existence of government, at least in our democratic republic, is that it should serve the people.  Businessmen are out for profit. Politicians are supposed to be out for the common good. 

If a business offered me a product and I decide to purchase it, I know they are making some profit off me. That’s ok, I already know that. 

But if a politician promises me something, whatever it is, and I vote for this politician, the technical premise is that the politician should follow through because that’s the politician's duty. And, if said politician doesn’t make good on the promise, as is often the case, then I (and the people) have been cheated.  

So, here lays my beef with the cynics and the trapos. It is because while I expect a business to serve the business, I also expect a government to serve the constituent it governs.