• dohpaz42@lemmy.world
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    17 hours ago

    Agreed. Running government as if it’s a business is, was, and always will be a horrible position. Government services (including prisons) are not meant to be profitable. They are there to make sure basic needs are met. What’s worse is that despite any government services being funded with taxpayer money, any profit made rarely ever makes its way back into taxpayer pockets.

    My state government has been running hundreds of millions of dollars in budget surpluses more often than not, and yet salaries for state employees keep stagnating and our health insurance is going up (sometimes up to 3x) for many employees.

    • timuchan@lemmy.wtf
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      17 hours ago

      If they’re businesses, then our tax dollars ought to be seen as investment money that pays us dividends rather then getting siphoned to the corporations. (This is an intentionally bad take - I fully believe public services need to be non-corporate and non-profit)