Can business leaders really run the government like a company?

Washington has seen a wave of people switching from private business to public service. Many are tech investors and entrepreneurs who rose to fame by backing high-risk, high-reward ventures. Now, they're in charge of huge budgets and policy decisions that could shape the economy for years. These leaders often argue that markets know best—that profits and losses guide smart choices, while bad decisions get fixed quickly. But governments don’t work like companies. In business, if you bet wrong, your company suffers. In politics, the same doesn’t happen. No one loses their job because a government project fails, and taxpayers foot the bill.Some officials seem to believe they can outsmart the market. They treat federal funding like venture capital, picking winners and losers in industries. But government doesn’t have the same incentives as private firms. Instead of clear signals like profits or stock prices, decisions come from political pressure, lobbying, and vague goals like “boosting resilience. ” Even when these leaders know government is inefficient, they still try to run it like a business. They’ve pushed for cutting waste in bureaucracies but have struggled because politics doesn’t work like a startup. Elon Musk’s attempt to streamline government showed how hard change really is—political systems resist reform, no matter how skilled the leader. This approach mirrors China’s state-led investment strategy, where decisions serve political goals over economic ones. A government trying to mimic private success often ends up creating something worse—misplaced funds, weak oversight, and less real innovation.