Improvement opportunities in oversized government, corporations, and unions

Debt burdened companies require special attention to reduce discretionary expenses and sell assets to free up cash to reduce debt and/or otherwise restructure debt into equity.

Additional improvements may require additional “restructuring” along the lines described in “Let's 'Restructure' Washington While We're at It - Congress is at least as unresponsive to consumer demand as Detroit.” By PHILIP K. HOWARD, a lawyer, chair of Common Good (www.commongood.org), and author of the new book "Life Without Lawyers," published Jan 2009 by W.W. Norton & Co.

Extract follows:

Congress (is) calling for "a complete restructuring" of our failing auto makers. But how about restructuring Washington? The federal government is a giant Rube Goldberg machine that not only wastes hundreds of billions of dollars each year but also burdens local governments and the private sector with legal requirements that no longer serve the public good.

- Cut "legacy obligations."

- Streamline management. Too many layers of management, … rigid job classifications, inefficiency.

- Make products customers want. Check unintended consequences, whatever stifles important activity.

- Enhance competitiveness. Washington's (executive) failures are far more significant to the economy than Detroit's (line workers). Law has effectively removed the freedom needed to take responsibility.

- Increase accountability. …huge regulatory edifice created over the years.
As Rep. Edward Markey said of Detroit, we need a "change in culture, to a culture that answers challenges with innovation rather than lobbying and litigation." Truer words were never spoken about Washington (struggling companies).
Society can't function effectively if weighed down by decades of accumulated law. Americans can't access their can-do spirit if they go through the day looking over their shoulders.

- Impose change from the outside. Entrenched cultures rarely fix themselves. Washington does not have Toyota or Honda pushing it to compete and innovate.
What's needed is an outside movement to overhaul, making proposals area by area. It could be a council of elders, such as former leaders, a few who have to suffer under mandates. Only with outside pressure will leadership surmount the forces of inertia. Time to act is now. Energize, spring cleaning, realign, advance. It's worth the effort. Removing shackles of outmoded will unleash untold resources and human energy.