&quot;strong encouragement not to do that&quot;<p>I would expect that if governments had the same fiscal responsibility as businesses then they would have about the same failure rates.<p>The failure rate in companies that end up with the investors losing money or some other form of debt is, what, 30%? (Number is from &#x27;Redefining Business Success: Distinguishing Between Closure and Failure&#x27;, Headd (2003)).<p>If governments had the same failure rate as businesses we would be up in arms. Yes, some city governments are bankrupt, but it&#x27;s not true that even 10% of them are failures. <a href="http:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.governing.com&#x2F;gov-data&#x2F;municipal-cities-counties-bankruptcies-and-defaults.html" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.governing.com&#x2F;gov-data&#x2F;municipal-cities-counties-...</a> says it&#x27;s more like 1:2000.<p>That is not a sign of &#x27;extreme fiscal irresponsibility&#x27;.<p>&quot;Sounds like you&#x27;ve already made up your mind that &quot;wealth redistribution&quot; is acceptable to you, which is a political viewpoint, not solely an economic one.&quot;<p>You make it sound like political viewpoints should not be a consideration.<p>The existence of non-profit status, the choice of what can be non-profit, and the rules that apply (eg, the 5 percent payout requirement for foundations) also also influenced by politics.<p>Since you appear to support special non-profit status for schools, you and I are in agreement that political views are indeed an important aspect of this discussion. I therefore don&#x27;t understand why your comment is useful.