E Pluribus Unum: Out of Many, One

President Trump claims his Administration is running like a great business. But this is not how businesses are run.

In fact, most businesses understand the importance of investing in their human capital. They understand that, by doing so, they will have less costly employee turnover and increased employee retention, satisfaction, productivity, creativity and loyalty.

• That’s why companies like Starbucks pays for its employees to attend college.
• That’s why companies like McDonalds, Target, Ikea, Costco and JP Morgan Chase have agreed to start increasing their minimum wages.
• That’s why companies like Google, Amazon and Netflix have increased the number of weeks in their paid paternity leave programs.

By investing in its employees, a business is not just being altruistic. These strategic investments will also help make a business more financially sustainable and profitable in the long-term.

Great businesses are made by great employees who feel invested in. After all, the biggest asset to a business is its employees. In the same way, the biggest asset to our country is its citizens. And just like a business needs to invest its employees, our government needs to invest in its citizens and ensure equality of opportunity.

That is what President Trump fails to understand.

• He failed to understand this with his Muslim immigration ban.
• He failed to understand this with his “Repeal Obamacare” slogan.
• He failed to understand this with his choice of Betsy DeVos as Education Secretary, who could privatize our education system, remove the national standards set in place, and reverse sexual violence punishment guidelines.
• He failed to understand this with his choice of Scott Pruitt as EPA Secretary, who denies climate change and could fail to enforce critical environmental protection laws.
• He failed to understand this with his choice of Jeff Sessions as Attorney General, who once called groups like the NAACP and the ACLU “Communist-inspired” and “un-American”.
• He failed to understand this with his choice of Alexander Acosta as Labor Secretary who, as a U.S. attorney, did not believe in pressing federal charges against a billionaire who solicited prostitution from a 14-year-old in 2008.

Regardless of what political party you belong to, both liberals and conservatives benefit from an invested government. If you have ever attended a public school; ever needed a tax break; ever used a bank loan; ever needed to buy health insurance; or ever started a business, you have needed an invested and reliable partner in government.

Additionally, government is able to offer something that capitalism cannot: the guarantee of certain freedoms – the freedoms to be healthy, drink clean water, breath clean air, obtain a great education, succeed in a free market economy and have capital when you need it.

Capitalism may be a zero-sum game. But that’s not how government should or can operate. And the sooner President Trump realizes this, the sooner we can move away from a “I win, you lose” mentality and get our country back on track.