I’ve worked both. Private corps have less oversight. I remember only one audit in 10 years while working in a private company. Government had one every year at least. Private – budget is a guideline, no penalty if you overspend. Consequences for missing targets – maybe. Government no leeway. Maybe it is different for federal or state. I worked at the county or city level.
Source: LendingTree analysis of U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) data.
We also looked at the five- and 10-year business failure rates, which compared March 2023 and March 2018 and March 2023 and March 2013, respectively.
At those points, 48.0% and 65.3% of businesses fail, respectively. (Though the one-year failure rate increased compared to last year’s data, the five-year failure rate dropped slightly from 48.4% to 48.0%.)
I’m a retired geologist and I’ve done both, including both State and Federal government, and to be truthful I was a lot happier in the private sector. But. There is a common mistake in thinking that the two are equivalent in terms of mission. The Private Sector mission is to provide goods or services for a profit, to pay investors at least a reasonable return on their investment. The Government Sector mission is to provide services to the citizens (hopefully also all tax payers) that are needed by all at some time or another that come at a cost that most citizens simply can’t afford to pay. The US Postal Service was one of the first examples in the States. Other examples would be national defense, the national weather service (think the Hurricane Hunter “air force” as an example), Any of the agencies tasked with protecting health or the environment, managing State Lands, and, well, I hope you get the idea. An important point is that some people are good at managing in the private sector, and they may be able to contribute to a more efficient public sector, but only if they understand the difference in the mission.
The business world and government world work off of different bases. Their money comes from different sources, and they have to satisfy different stakeholders and customers.
Business does not have a guaranteed source of income. Even residual and long term contract income must be sourced and then eventually expires. Government has a guaranteed source of income: taxes. The exact amount may change every year due to the economy and managers playing with budgets, but there will be money coming in.
Both must satisfy their customers, but a business’s customers are a subset of the total tax paying population whereas the government must try to satisfy the total tax paying population. That is an impossible situation for the government, hence no matter what it does there are people always mad at it. When businesses anger their customers they lose income, whereas tax payers still have to pay taxes when they are angry at the government. Government “managers” (politicians and their appointees) may change, but the overall machine continues to churn.
Comparing the two situations may not be exactly like comparing apples to oranges, but at least it is like comparing eating apples to crab apples. I’ll let you decide who is who. But since each group’s income sources and customers are so different, it is folly to think they would or should operate the same.
(Continued) “…I’ve always worked for the government! I started off administering the Interstate Highway system, then I helped clean up that river that was so polluted it kept catching fire, then I transferred to the Defense Department for a while, and right before I retired I was with the National Weather Service warning people to evacuate from where those big storms were headed recently!” (Head in hands) “I’ve just now realized what a useless leech I was my whole life! Thank God this job in predatory lending came along!”
Retrac Premium Member 2 days ago
In government parlance it is called revenue. But it is pure profit.
Zykoic 2 days ago
Is it true that the most of the bureaucrats now work from home?
Catherine Spencer-Mills Premium Member 2 days ago
I’ve worked both. Private corps have less oversight. I remember only one audit in 10 years while working in a private company. Government had one every year at least. Private – budget is a guideline, no penalty if you overspend. Consequences for missing targets – maybe. Government no leeway. Maybe it is different for federal or state. I worked at the county or city level.
nosirrom 2 days ago
Profits – i.e. Big payouts to the top brass while the company goes bankrupt.
Kornfield Kounty 2 days ago
For every action there is an equal and opposite government program.
Main’s Law
MuddyUSA Premium Member 2 days ago
FUNNY!!!
Watchdog 2 days ago
Cartoon clipped and tacked to wall of machine shop break room
lsnrchrd.1 Premium Member 2 days ago
lendingtree . com business/small/failure-rate/
Source: LendingTree analysis of U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) data.
We also looked at the five- and 10-year business failure rates, which compared March 2023 and March 2018 and March 2023 and March 2013, respectively.
At those points, 48.0% and 65.3% of businesses fail, respectively. (Though the one-year failure rate increased compared to last year’s data, the five-year failure rate dropped slightly from 48.4% to 48.0%.)
syzygy47 1 day ago
Donny’s had been applying his bankruptcy and lining his own pockets skillset to his last term in office
cuzinron47 1 day ago
Never thought of the government being a non-profit organization considering the profit from out taxes.
Teto85 Premium Member 1 day ago
And once again, the Tittiebum boys expose their ignorance of the real world.
bilbrlsn 1 day ago
In the private sector, increasing profit is easy. You just raise prices. Then blame the government for inflation.
Sun 1 day ago
In order to keep the Government running, you must be thankful for skyrocketing taxes.
Curiosity Premium Member 1 day ago
I’m a retired geologist and I’ve done both, including both State and Federal government, and to be truthful I was a lot happier in the private sector. But. There is a common mistake in thinking that the two are equivalent in terms of mission. The Private Sector mission is to provide goods or services for a profit, to pay investors at least a reasonable return on their investment. The Government Sector mission is to provide services to the citizens (hopefully also all tax payers) that are needed by all at some time or another that come at a cost that most citizens simply can’t afford to pay. The US Postal Service was one of the first examples in the States. Other examples would be national defense, the national weather service (think the Hurricane Hunter “air force” as an example), Any of the agencies tasked with protecting health or the environment, managing State Lands, and, well, I hope you get the idea. An important point is that some people are good at managing in the private sector, and they may be able to contribute to a more efficient public sector, but only if they understand the difference in the mission.
ferddo 1 day ago
The business world and government world work off of different bases. Their money comes from different sources, and they have to satisfy different stakeholders and customers.
Business does not have a guaranteed source of income. Even residual and long term contract income must be sourced and then eventually expires. Government has a guaranteed source of income: taxes. The exact amount may change every year due to the economy and managers playing with budgets, but there will be money coming in.
Both must satisfy their customers, but a business’s customers are a subset of the total tax paying population whereas the government must try to satisfy the total tax paying population. That is an impossible situation for the government, hence no matter what it does there are people always mad at it. When businesses anger their customers they lose income, whereas tax payers still have to pay taxes when they are angry at the government. Government “managers” (politicians and their appointees) may change, but the overall machine continues to churn.
Comparing the two situations may not be exactly like comparing apples to oranges, but at least it is like comparing eating apples to crab apples. I’ll let you decide who is who. But since each group’s income sources and customers are so different, it is folly to think they would or should operate the same.
JRobinson Premium Member about 17 hours ago
(Continued) “…I’ve always worked for the government! I started off administering the Interstate Highway system, then I helped clean up that river that was so polluted it kept catching fire, then I transferred to the Defense Department for a while, and right before I retired I was with the National Weather Service warning people to evacuate from where those big storms were headed recently!” (Head in hands) “I’ve just now realized what a useless leech I was my whole life! Thank God this job in predatory lending came along!”