Every day we take our experience and try to function as best we can in a political world. You are involved in politics unless you live alone on a completely isolated island. Put two people together and they are instantly involved in politics. They have to communicate, negotiate, compromise, and sometimes support each other. With two hundred people we are into rules and regulations. By the time we reach two million, we have full-time government, armies, and representative government.

Politics is getting together with other individuals and determining how we will be governed. Politics is present in everything we do: government, business, religion, sports, the condo association, the Little League, and even organized crime. The politics of government is the greatest spectator sport in the world. Everyone who pays attention to it has an opinion about it. It is also the world’s largest participant sport since it is open to everyone.

The goal of politics is to be selected to govern, where the politics change dramatically. The government runs more like a business with its own unique model –– no profit, at least not for the organization being governed. Decisions are more likely based on economics rather than ideology.

People that govern us are politicians when they run for office. Once elected, they are managers and administrators. Consider the local school board. They campaign on “feel good” issues: higher graduation rates, increased test scores, better teacher pay, or greater attendance rates. Once elected, it becomes all about the dollars and, recently, the books.

Politics is far easier than governing. Facts don’t always get in the way. Opinions repeated often enough sometimes are treated as facts. And, of course, anyone can play politics. There is no admission criteria. Want to run for office? Fill out a form, pay a fee, or gather petitions, and you are in the race.

Governing is far harder than politics. You never please all the people all the time. You live in a perpetual world of sub-optimization, which can be very frustrating. So why do they do it? I only see two reasons: a commitment to public service, or to get rich. Almost every member of the US Congress leaves office with a greater net worth than when they entered public service. In many cases the increase exceeds the total compensation they earned while in office. How does this happen? Think about it.