If the twentieth century taught us anything, it is that when one tries to do the other s job, all sorts of things go wrong. But there is an area in between, where business and government need to work in partnership. Most business men and women have long known that profits are not made in a social vacuum. You need rules and standards that everyone accepts. You need to be confident that your competitors will play by those rules and observe those standards, and that if they don t they will not get away with it.
Business is hard to sustain in conditions of anarchy, rampant crime or political insecurity.
If too many members of society feel they have no stake in that social order, it will sooner or later collapse, taking your investment with it. You also need healthy customers, with money in their pockets. And you need skilled workers. You may be happy to train them yourself, but you expect that they will come to you with at least a basic education. Finally, if you hope to stay in business more than a few years you need a stable and sustainable natural environment.