"The best minds are not in government. If any were, business would hire them away."
-- Ronald Reagan
This is a good example of the single-minded Mammon worship that "Market-Based-Economy-As-A-Philosophy-Of-Life" breeds.
The idea that EVERY human value has a solely monetary value flies in the face of the Judeo-Christian values we supposedly hold as a Nation (I say "supposedly" for a reason). But then again, it does explain why the current Administration prefers entrusting National Security and Foreign Policy activities to corporate entities like Blackwater and Halliburton instead of the U.S. Army, the State Department, and the Corps of Engineers. For one thing, Mammon-based decision making is much simpler than Ethics-based policy decisions (and certainly simpler than Scripturally-based policy decisions). It is simply a matter of profit.
The concept of "Public Service" is totally lost on these people. Public service and self-sacrifice is something for "chumps" to do.
I left the world of private enterprise (Advertising) for a job as a public servant (Municipal Planning) partly as a result of my Christian conversion. One of the signs that I had to change (and I have to stress that this is a personal, not universal, decision) was when I had a client whose corporate name was M.I.P. I couldn't see any connection between his business (medical services consulting) and his corporate name. I asked, and he replied, "M.I.P. stands for Make It Pay."
Mammon worship, the arbitrator of all values.
"What good will it be for a man if he gains the whole world, yet forfeits his soul? Or what can a man give in exchange for his soul?"
-- Matthew 16:26
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