Differences between running an economy and running a company

The US president-elect Donald Trump is widely accepted as a successful businessman and many American people believe he could direct the American economy as well as he directs his own business, especially given a big probability of another economic crisis during his presidency. However, I think that there are differences between running an economy and running a company, so a successful business career may not help one become better at running a country's economy.

Running a company is to maximize the company's profits and running a country's economy is to maximize the social welfare, these two goals look very similar but actually fundamentally different. The ownership of a company belongs to its shareholders who do not work inside the company, but the ownership of a country belongs to all citizens who actually work in the economy.

When running a company, the management team can change the company's employment structure in order to make it more profitable and more productive, sometimes it is better to lay off some unproductive workers and replace them with better ones. However, this is not possible and right when running an economy. When running an economy, people could be transferred from one position to another in the labour, but forcing them to be unemployed because of their abilities or productivities is not something socially desirable. Therefore, when running an economy, a primary goal is to maximize the employment without considering too much on profitability and productivity which are less important than lowering the unemployment rate. Additionally, the motivation of running a company successfully and the motivation of running a country is different.

Therefore, I think running a business successfully does not mean he or she can run a country's economy successfully.