I'm Pete du Pont with the National Center for Policy Analysis. Sometimes ideas are so breathtaking they can't be summed up a couple of hundred words. In this case, it's a piece in the December second issue of Intellectual Capital dot com by Alex Lightman. It's an interesting plan to take the United States public.
Yep, you heard me right. America, Inc.
I'll admit, I laughed when I heard the idea, but why? Lightman calls it equitocracy. Every non-felon adult would own shares in America. They'd be traded on the stock exchange. If the government performed well, the shares' value would go up. It not, they'd drop. Has government ever had a better reason not to screw up?
How many politicians have said "government ought to be run like a business"? Well, now it would be. And shareholders would profit if government was run well.
It's in the December 2nd Intellectual Capital dot com. I don't know that I believe the idea… but somehow I can't shake it.
Those are my ideas, and at the NCPA, we know ideas –even really Out-on-the-edge ideas — can change the world. I'm Pete du Pont. Next time, Rational Gun Policy.