A Thought Experiment from a Tired Citizen
Here’s a radical question that’s been running around in my head for a while now:
What if governments ran like a business, and instead of taxes we were paying subscriptions for specific public services?
Consider this a thought experiment and walk with me please. You see, when I look at the world today and the patterns of unrest, disruptions, questioning the status quo I am forced to think. We see what is happening in Gaza and Palestine. The Sahel nations are responding to colonial overreach. There is an upending in the United States. Europe is pulling away from aid and putting more into defense. It is hard to escape the feeling that something fundamental in how we do governance is no longer working.
People in many places are restless. Surveys keep telling us what we already feel, which is that democracy is eroding, trust in institutions is falling, and majorities in many countries are dissatisfied with how their democracy works (or doesn’t anymore). Business, interestingly, is now seen as far more competent than government, to deliver certain goods and services because failure to deliver is existential for that business.
Perhaps it is time that we admit it: the global operating system is glitching badly.
I am a global citizen at heart, African if you want to contextualize me and Nigerian if you must pin me to a nation. So my current thinking is grounded in my own context as a Nigerian who has experienced many places and cultures.
You see, on paper I am a citizen of a modern state. I pay taxes so that the government can provide services at scale that individuals can’t easily organise alone. You know, the usual security, infrastructure, public education, health, water, transport, justice.
In reality though, I pay:
- For my own electricity by running a generator, coupled with solar inverters because the power supply is infrequent at best.
- For my own water that comes through a borehole that is powered using a pump machine to get the water into my building, and of course the tanks to store the water. Not forgetting that drinking water comes in sachets and bottles. Even where pipe borne water might be available, I still buy drinking water because I cannot rely on what might (or might not) come through the pipes.
- For my own security by putting in place personal precautions, like living in a gate estate with private guards. Of course also the numerous prayers, especially if I need to take a road trip.
- For my own education systems by paying for private schools just to get the bare minimum quality and/ or extra lessons so my kids and I have a fighting chance to become “something”.
Yet after all these alternatives that I must create and pay for through my meagre resources, the state still charges me like a full-service provider. When in practice, it behaves more like a brand that has stopped innovating and even stopped stocking its shelves with the goods and services that I need.
I know from my travels that this is not just a Nigerian story. In many countries people are saying some version of the same thing: we are paying in, but we are not sure what we are paying for. Across 23 countries, a median of 58% now say they are dissatisfied with how democracy is working.
So the frustration that I feel, and which you might be feeling as well, is not abstract. It’s practical. If I’m already self-providing electricity, water, security, healthcare and schooling, what exactly is my tax buying?
Thinking Like a Business: Value, Pricing, Accountability
When I say “governments should run like a business,” I don’t mean governments should become profit-maximising corporations. I mean they should be forced to confront some basic disciplines that any serious business understands, such as:
- Clear value proposition: what exactly are we offering, to whom, and at what level of quality?
- Transparent pricing: what does it cost, and why?
- Service-level expectations: how quickly do we respond, how reliably do we deliver, and what happens when we fail?
- Feedback loops: how do we listen, learn, and improve based on what “customers” experience?
- Real consequences: if we consistently underperform, leadership changes, models change, or we lose our market.
Now think with me and apply this logic to the government. Instead of a single, opaque tax system, you are paying a subscription to bundles of public services:
- A basic social package: water, primary healthcare, basic education, roads, safety etc. Of course the packages are also designed to target specific users and purchasing power, so maybe if you reside in certain locations that use up a lot more for whatever reason, you might pay more than if you reside in a location that uses a lot less. And so on…
- Extended or “premium” layers: higher education, advanced health coverage, mass transit, digital infrastructure, social protection. This one is probably self explanatory I’m sure.
Continue the thought journey with me and imagine. In such a world, you would expect the following:
- Dashboards that show performance of your electricity, water, security and education systems in real time.
- Mechanisms to complain and be heard, with visible remedial action.
- Tiered contributions that are understandable, not buried in technical tax codes.
- A culture where the government is obsessed with improving the product, not just defending the system.
- And so on..
In this envisioned world, if my “state subscription” fails consistently, something will actually shift. Not just slogans at the next election. Would we even need to be bothered with elections again since the government will only be working hard to find the people who can run this business in the best ways possible. Oh I can just imagine how much less would be paid out as staff salaries. But I’ll shelve that thought for another write up!
Rethinking Borders, Nationhood and Who We “Pay”
Now let us lean further into this thought experiment, as things get even more interesting.
Right now, the default assumption is:
You live within these borders; therefore you belong to this state; therefore you pay this government, whether or not it works.
But what if we had the value, pricing and accountability that I have described previously and our governance systems were running like a business, what might happen?
Here’s what I envision;
- Highly effective states. I.e. those that actually provide safety, services and dignity — could arguably charge higher subscription rates. People would still pay, because they see the value. (This is, in some ways, how places like Switzerland or the Nordics already feel: you pay a lot, but you also see and touch what you get.)
- Poorly performing states would either have to charge less or dramatically improve to retain their “customer base”. Which is, their residents and their productive citizens.
- Ideas of citizenship and migration could begin to look more like membership models. We already see glimmers of this in digital nomad visas and “citizenship by investment” schemes. Governance could become something you consciously subscribe to, and not just inherit at birth.
I am not naive and I know that what I am envisioning here of course, raises all kinds of ethical questions. But you see it also reveals something important. For many of us, the nation-state currently functions as a monopoly provider with compulsory fees. There is no competitive pressure to innovate, no real risk of losing us as “clients” even when we are chronically underserved.
We can emigrate individually, but we cannot easily exit as communities. If however we just needed to subscribe, what shape would borders take and would concepts like nationhood and patriotism survive? Oh this one I would love to dive deeper into with my fellow historians and futurists, but will park this thinking for now and continue to wrap up this thought journey!
Where the Cracks are Showing
The reason this business lens is interesting today and right now is because the cracks in the old model are everywhere:
- Democracy has been declining globally for nearly two decades; more people now live under authoritarian rule or diminished democracies than under healthy ones.
- In regions like the Sahel, repeated coups, insecurity and jihadist violence are symptoms of states that have lost legitimacy and can no longer deliver basic safety or services.
- Major donors are cutting development aid and redirecting resources to defense and security, even as needs grow.
- Multilateral systems are struggling to respond credibly to crises like Ukraine and Gaza; geopolitical power plays often trump any real commitment to justice.
Meanwhile, public trust is collapsing. Recent global surveys show people trusting business far more than government and media, and many are increasingly open to “hostile actions” to force change when they feel institutions don’t respond.
When you connect all these dots, it starts to look less like scattered crises and more like a clear message:
The way we currently organise government is not keeping up with the world we are living in.
The Obvious Risks
Now, let me be clear, this thought journey is not an argument for a simple “turn government into a company and let the market sort it out” solution. That would be a disaster if it were to happen immediately and in one fell swoop.
If we blindly applied a market logic to governance:
- The poorest and most marginalised would be excluded from basic services.
- Things that are true public goods — climate stability, peace, epidemic preparedness — would be underfunded because no single “customer” can pay for them alone.
- Whoever controls the “governance business” could still become an unaccountable monopoly.
So yes, even I will be the first to admit that there are enormous design questions here. BUT this is not a ready-made blueprint. It is my provocation to you dear readers and leaders planning the future.
Applying The Thinking Today
The point I might make for today, if this envisioning is to apply on any level at all,is not to say: “Let’s privatize everything.”
The point for today is ask:
“What if we brought the same level of clarity, pressure and innovation to the government that we already demand from businesses we pay every month?”
What could change if we took this seriously? If we treated citizens more like conscious subscribers than captive taxpayers, we might see:
- Radical transparency: real-time data on service performance, not just annual budget speeches.
- Service-level commitments: clear standards for water quality, electricity uptime, emergency response, and education outcomes.
- Participatory product design: budgeting and policy-making that actually starts from citizen priorities, not elite preferences.
- Differentiated “plans” at city or regional level, where different models can be tested instead of pretending one national template fits all.
- A new language for accountability: “You promised X in the package; you delivered Y; here is how that gap will be fixed, or your leadership will change.”
In other words, the business model of governance would be under constant review, not just the personalities at the top.
So What Now?
I don’t have all the answers. I cannot even pretend to, as a true systems thinker and designer. It takes time and a community.
To really work through this would need a think tank. A community, a coalition of people who are willing to ask uncomfortable questions and design serious alternatives, especially from places like Nigeria and the wider African continent, where the gap between taxes and services is so stark.
I know though, that it begins with our discomfort. This is what I believe matters. When citizens across the world feel they are paying into a system that no longer protects them, no longer serves them, and no longer listens to them, something has to give. Either we descend further into apathy, anger and unrest… or we start intentionally redesigning the contract.
This thought experiment — governments run like a business, subscriptions instead of blind taxation — is my way of poking at the problem, and hopefully we begin to confront a simple, urgent question:
If we were designing governance from scratch today, with everything we know, would we really build what we currently have?
And if the answer is no, then maybe our work, as citizens, leaders, thinkers, and doers, is to begin sketching what might come next.
If you or someone you know is creating the space and room for this kind of thinking, designing and “futuring”, know that I am very open to being invited to discuss and plan for the future!
Yop Rwang Pam
Still Listening. Still Learning
#Leadership #SystemsThinking #Governance #Democracy #AfricaRising #FutureOfGovernment #CivicImaginations
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