Gov. Symington meant business

I know the following column strays a long way from pop culture, but how can any Arizonan ignore Gov. Symington's forced resignation from office after being convicted on seven of 21 felony fraud counts? Like Evan Mecham, Fife Symington ran for governor of Arizona with the promise that he would make government efficient by applying sound business principles. It was a persuasive argument, apparently After all, a public raised on stories about insane patterns of government spending (insert a ridiculous $ figure paid for a coffee pot or a toilet seat here) knows that there ought to be a tougher method of cost accounting. American business with its "leaner, meaner" philosophy of the '80s seemed to have it. Symington appeared to be a successful businessman, dealing in more dollars than Mecham's auto dealership could dream of. So why not give him a try? Could it hurt to reduce the tax load on the average citizen by making government cut bloat? Other people's money Symington, who dealt in millions of dollars, used a sound business principle to make himself the developer of the Esplanade and the Mercado. That principle is that whenever possible you must use other people's money to power your deals. If you can get people to fund your "vision," you put nothing on the line except your reputation. However, your reputation usually has to be pretty good to get savvy people to put up the money. Symington's reputation was good. He knew the art of the deal, and he put deals together the way an artist applies paint to canvas. People believed he could make things happen and were willing to back him financially. In government, he used the same principle, by using taxpayers' money. He got this government deal to go by promising some returns to the taxpayer in the form of reduced income tax. If you didn't look at the toll it took on social-service agencies such as Child Protective Services and the state's aid program to public schools, it seemed like a good deal. Ultimately, though, government -- especially the government of a democratic republic -- is not a business. Self-interest and public interest A businessman has the right to be out solely for himself in business, but government has to look out for everyone's interests. The businessman will try to convince the other guy that a deal is mutually beneficial, but he'll do everything in his power to make the deal more mutually beneficial to himself. (Think of this idea from George Orwell's Animal Farm: "All animals are created equal, but some are more equal than others.") That philosophy doesn't work, though, in government. If there's widespread cynicism about government, it exists precisely to the extent that politicians take the system for all that it's worth, instead of acting as public servants. The system continues to limp along instead of running because of self-serving attitudes in politics. Symington favored business. He showed no sympathy for the average Joe who had to stick his kids in one of Arizona's struggling public schools. How much would even a $50,000-a-year wage earner have to scrimp to put one child through a high-quality private-school education in Arizona? Could even a zero-percent income tax put enough money back in that parent's pocket to make it possible? Business is good Business does make things run, and in general, good business makes good sense. American business has created the standard of living here. However, American business owes its ability to flourish in large part to one of the most stable governments the world has seen. This is not a government that's about to nationalize any industries. (OK, the railroads are the exceptions that prove the rule.) In fact, quite the opposite. Government extends a large helping hand to many troubled businesses. However, because business is powered by self-interest, it can edge toward practices that are not in the public interest. It's costly, for instance, to keep a chemical factory from polluting the environment, and the short-term, bottom-line interests of business would like to avoid that cost. (Having become a modest entrepreneur myself, I face ethical issues every day that make it tough to get ahead. I'm convinced it would be much easier to do business if I didn't have a conscience.) The government is supposed to be responsible for a different kind of cost accounting. It's supposed to ensure the public interest rather than self-interest -- or at the very least, attempt to find a compromise between opposing self-interests. (Although there are many questions about the way government today is shouldering this responsibility, no one has created a model in which business would willingly shoulder the social burdens it creates.) Business is bad Symington, acting in his self-interest, lied to bankers. At least that's what federal lawyers persuaded a jury to believe. This was a crime for which he may well be imprisoned. To my way of thinking, his larger crime was that he used similar false representations -- that he was a successful businessman -- to win election. He will never be put on trial or sent to prison for this, though. There's no law against lying to the voting public. Yet as sure as Symington seemed about his innocence and the soundness of his principles, maybe he really believed that it's OK to lie to bankers. (I can see me misrepresenting my worth to get a loan. Ha!) Then again, maybe he just lied to himself. Copyright © 1997, Salvatore Caputo