Editor’s note: This op-ed is by Bill Schubart, a regular commentator for Vermont Public Radio and president of the Vermont Journalism Trust, the umbrella organization for VTDigger.org. This piece was first aired on VPR.
The accords we’ve long used to organize ourselves into a functioning society have traditionally been shared among three sectors: government, business and the nonprofit sector.
Government has traditionally been the steward of national defense, criminal justice, internal revenue, education, infrastructure, and social safety. The business sector has typically ensured employment, wealth generation, and commerce — all of which make possible taxation that funds government. Gaps in the social safety net, health care, education, and the environment have fallen to the nonprofit sector.
Today all bets are off. The rising clash of political philosophies, unmediated by skilled leaders, has ignited a smoldering civil war over the appropriate roles of the three sectors. The resulting anarchy of words, fanned by an educational system and press corps failing many of our citizens, threatens the fabric of America.
Pressured for further tax cuts in an historically low-tax period, government must increasingly relinquish its social, educational, environmental, and infrastructure commitments to the nonprofit sector — which in turn, scuffles through the refuse of abandoned government commitments as it tries to fill gaps in the social and environmental fabric.
Conservatives believe in minimal government, minimal regulation, and the inherent benefits of free-market capitalism. They would prefer to see many government roles reallocated to the business sector with minimal regulation.
The business sector sees new profit opportunities in a shrinking government, and is moving swiftly into corrections, transportation infrastructure, private armies, and for-profit education and health care.
Pressured for further tax cuts in an historically low-tax period, government must increasingly relinquish its social, educational, environmental, and infrastructure commitments to the nonprofit sector — which in turn, scuffles through the refuse of abandoned government commitments as it tries to fill gaps in the social and environmental fabric. Its success, however, is often inhibited by its tendency to ignore its own governance and fall back on competitive rather than collaborative problem-solving.
A community-owned, nonprofit retail store, restaurant or bookshop opens up because a departing business sees no return on their investment and closes down. Public broadcasting debuts in 1967 to fill a broadcasting gap and offer educational, documentary, and cultural programming to listeners and viewers. Are these assaults on free-market capitalism or economic evolution?
Corrections Corporation of America helps develop Arizona’s immigration law to spur their growth in the “immigrant detention” market. For-profit specialty hospitals transfer patients with outcomes outside their specialty to nonprofit city hospitals. Are these examples of enterprise or crime? These are the dilemmas emerging from our second civil war.
If we’re going to re-assign the organizing elements of society across government, business and the nonprofit sectors, it will require strong leadership and dialog instead of the current fusillade of ideologies.
We can return to the pursuit of equitable growth and social progress we’ve enjoyed historically. But leaders across the spectrum will have to give up their hortatory media war and get on with the business of again being a great and innovative country and any realignment discussion will need to include transparency, measurement, and accountability before we can again resume our former path to greatness.
