In the software industry, the phrase "eating your own dogfood" is taken to mean that a company uses its own software to do its work. Microsoft uses Microsoft products to develop future Microsoft products. You would hope that Intuit employees would use TurboTax to do their own taxes, and likewise, that the Ford CEO would drive a Ford, or more literally that an Iams employee would feed their own dog Iams products. And not because they would be getting them at an employee discount - but because they believed that their product was the best and worthy of their own use. Would you eat at a restaurant where the head chef never ate what he cooked? Would you buy a parachute that the manufacturer wouldn't use himself?

Now what if we could apply this practice to our politicians? What if we could make them eat the dogfood they force upon the rest of us? What if Barack Obama had to send his kids to public schools? What if Tom Daschle had to pay all his taxes honestly and timely? What if Hillary Clinton had to go to Canada and experience universal health care before attempting it in the US? What if Nancy Pelosi couldn't have bodyguards with firearms? What if Ted Kennedy had to pay Social Security and Medicare taxes? What if all politicians had to be audited by the IRS every single year?

Maybe they'd think twice about passing laws when they actually have to live under the same laws the rest of us do.

Labels: politics