Join the Masterclass on Governance: A Crucial Lesson for Today’s Leaders
February 27, 2025
President Reagan's inaugural speech said, "In this present crisis, government is not the solution to our problem; government is the problem." He questioned whether an elite group of leaders was genuinely superior to self-rule, challenging the notion that society had become too complex to be managed by the people. Reagan believed that if we are all incapable of governing ourselves, who truly can govern others?
Introduced in 1981, this philosophy laid the foundation for a movement advocating for smaller government. Even figures like Elon Musk, with his DOGE approach and public servant layoffs, seek cost reduction and efficiency.
However, I subscribe to a different view: the government should be effective and efficient, with its size proportional to its tasks. In the 1980s, the prevailing idea was to reduce government by shifting tasks to the market through privatization, believing competition would improve prices and services. Over time, privatization became increasingly widespread, yet evaluations since 2014 suggest that it has led to significant issues, including inequality and individualism. Source.
What caught my attention recently, however, was a proposal in the election program of a political party in Curaçao advocating for the privatization of healthcare. Yet, to my knowledge, there has been no study to justify this claim. Privatization has succeeded in specific sectors, like government-owned hotels in the early 80s. Still, the latest disaster, privatizing our telecom sector—including seven undersea cables—has shown that the market does not work here. We are too small for economies of scale, and the transactions are rarely anonymous, often involving well-known personalities.
Even if privatization of healthcare could work in theory, here it does not. So, what is the solution? The answer lies in strengthening corporate governance. But this is a long road. Courts are overwhelmed with cases holding leaders accountable for their decisions. You can learn from your mistakes, sometimes even getting yourself into legal trouble—or you can take the opportunity to upskill by attending our masterclass on governance.
I strongly recommend the latter. Join us to gain the tools to govern effectively in today's world.
Learn More and Sign Up for the Masterclass on Governance
Miguel Goede
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