Government is Not a Business

In an industrial capitalist society, like America today, it is easy to forget that there is much more to life than the economy.  As citizens we are constantly barraged with economic data and analysis, and it is easy to get lost in the mess of information.  The stock prices of the day are quoted with every newscast, tax policy is constantly being debated, debt "crises" are manufactured and over-reported on, etc.  One must work hard to break through the constant conditioning and realize the age-old saying, "The best things in life are free."  Let us not forget that our finances are not our individuality, and that the wealth of a nation does not translate to the happiness of its populace.
While many of the best things in life are free, there are many services we depend on that cost quite a bit of money.  Many of these services do quite well in the market, respond well to market pressures, and lead to an improved quality of life for the consumer.  Some examples of marketable services include retail and fashion, food and dining services, entertainment, automobiles, manufacturing, etc. (although many of these industries create dangerous and costly externalities that are rarely figured into their true cost).  However, most of the services we hold most dear are simply not profitable, nor should they be thought of as a viable business model.  Perhaps the most basic example is public safety.  If the police charged you a price for pursuing a burglar, you would be outraged.  If the fire department handed you a bill for responding to your house fire, you would be furious.  These are basic services that simply cannot be dealt with in the market, for the costs of maintaining an effective emergency response team far outweigh any possible price a private corporation could extort from the consumer.  When the private sector simply cannot provide a service, the onus falls upon the government to fill in.  Thus, we have a government who is saddled with the responsibility to: educate our youth for 12 years at no cost to the student, provide public safety services nationwide with a reasonable response time, provide disaster relief in the event of a catastrophe, provide material assistance to the disabled, underprivileged, aging, and starving, as well as countless other acts like bridge- and road building, infrastructure spending, and promoting scientific research and development. 
A good government simply cannot be profitable, for that would mean that the government is taking in more money from its populace than it is spending on them.  The government is not meant to expand and become more profitable, it is meant to protect and empower its citizenry.  When Republicans in Congress signal the coming of doomsday because of "deficit spending," I reply that if a government is not spending on its citizens, it no longer fulfills the function of a government.  Their pared-down version of government is little more than a standing army, unable to serve the needy within its borders, but fully capable of decimating the needy in other nations.  The health of a nation is measured not by GDP or stock quotes, but by the happiness and freedom of the people that constitute the nation.  And by people, I definitely do not include corporations.  The government serves a function that supercedes economic reasoning, and so cannot be subjected to the same sorts of market analysis employed in the private sector.  Unless economic policies benefit the majority of the population, they do not benefit the nation, regardless of nationwide statistics.  I plead that we tear our eyes away from the stock tickers and measures of growth and focus instead on the bottom of the economic hierarchy.  The nation will be economically healthy if and only if unemployment is reduced, homelessness is eradicated, and children are able to sleep without an empty stomach.  Let the factories and mansions crumble, if only the people can eat.