Author: Tristan Greene / Source: The Next Web
The White House wants the nation’s big tech companies to make it easier for employees to do a civic “tour of duty” with the government. Another way of putting it: the President needs to bring in temps now that his plan to cheat Federal workers out of their promised 2019 pay raise fell apart.
This latest assault on Federal employees by the White House comes in the form of a meeting held Monday between lawmakers and representatives from several technology companies. According to a report from The Washington Post, the purpose of the gathering was to convince big tech bosses to come up with policies making it easier for employees to take a leave of absence to temporarily work for the government.
According to The Post, White House deputy chief of staff for policy coordination Christopher Liddell said:
The country benefits when patriotic citizens with technical expertise choose to serve at the federal, state or local level.
This statement indicates the Trump administration is framing this as a voluntary civic duty, like picking up litter or voting. But is it really patriotic?
Let’s take a deeper look
On President Donald Trump‘s third day in office he signed an executive order freezing pay for Federal employees. It’s the kind of move you expect from a new CEO taking the reigns of a company running in the red. Unfortunately, as the President’s learned in the time since, the US isn’t a business.
It’s part business, of course. Capitalism is a large part of what the US is made of, but it’s not the entire recipe. So the President’s plan, which we assume was simply to get a handle on spending, was effective from a fiscal standpoint (think in terms of quarterly reports).
And the move likely motivated lawmakers to consider the country’s budgetary concerns under Trump differently, which is a political win.But, there’s an important distinction between the US government and a corporation. Just like the difference between angels and humans – in the Christian bible – only the latter has free will.
If your company makes vodka with your name on it, for example, and your business acumen has led you to a point where you can no longer afford to make vodka with your name on it, you can pivot to another endeavor — like creating a university with your name on it.
In the business world, the only thing holding you back is your imagination – some would argue this is especially true when it comes to dealing with government regulations.
Because, if businesses are the free-willed humans…
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