Explain SMBC — the wiki for Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal

biz

2025-03-05 View on smbc-comics.com → 1 revision
biz
Votey panel for biz
This explanation is incomplete or may contain errors. It was generated by AI and has not yet been reviewed by a human editor.

Explanation

This comic takes the common political talking point "It's time we run this country more like a business!" and follows it to its logical (and absurd) conclusion. A politician makes this declaration from a podium to cheering crowds. In the next panel, labeled "And so...," a citizen complains that the government is now calling their taxes a "subscription," the documents are covered with ads, and there may be "hot singles in my government" -- a reference to the sleazy clickbait ads found on commercial websites.

The humor comes from the literal interpretation of running a government like a business. If the government truly adopted private-sector practices, it would include all the worst aspects of modern commercial life: rebranding mandatory payments as optional-sounding subscriptions, plastering advertisements on everything for additional revenue, and using the same scammy clickbait tactics that plague the internet. The comic punctures the naivety of the "run government like a business" slogan by showing that businesses are not actually paragons of efficiency and public service -- they are engines of annoyance, exploitation, and shameless monetization.

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