At the same time they tell us that government is corrupt, forcing unneeded regulation on them, that it is run by incompetent and dishonest bureaucracies, contemptuous of ordinary people. Thus corporations plant in the public mind a picture of benign and efficient business battling incompetent government bent on cheating the public. Private enterprise, they lecture, is efficient and trustworthy while public institutions are badly run, wasteful, and uncaring. The truth of the matter is just the opposite. Government bureaucracy, since the long-ago reform of the civil service, is generally pretty well run by honest public servants while private industry has a generous complement of criminals, cheaters, liars and incompetents.
Scandal is common, fraud is notorious.
Criminal behavior is not uncommon. It's business that rides the backs of our children whose minds we are so foolish as to turn over to them forty hours a week. While comparing government performance to that of private industry let us not neglect the question of human rights. Industry can discharge any worker, any time for any reason or for no reason. If workers insist on the right to free speech, for instance, in seeking to unionize the work force, they will almost certainly be fired the instant management finds out.