Do we really want CEO's running for office?

Question

It seems like this is the season of CEOs, as former high profile CEO's like Carly Fiorina, Linda McMahon, and others have run highly publicized campaigns for public office.

Yet when you look deeper, what we really have is extremely rich corporate types who are infusing record amounts of money into the political system, essentially trying to buy a seat in the Senate, Congress, or the Governor's office. The 17th Amendment- which permitted the direct election of Senators- was partly aimed at preventing corrupt party bigshots from circumventing the democratic process. Most Senators today are millionaires...

Beyond the un-democratic nature of very rich individuals running for public office is the specter of individuals who are associated with corruption, greed, and the dismantling of the American manufacturing sector, and by extension, middle class. Carly Fiorina, for example, made a "name" for herself in helping HP ship thousands of jobs overseas. CEO's today get "bonuses" for helping ship additional jobs overseas, and those CEOs who do not outsource are seen as "old-fashioned" and out of tune with the times (I wonder what Hewlett and Packard would say?). Meanwhile, CEOs get paid more and more every year. At one point, a CEO was paid less than 10 times as much as the lowest paid worker at a company- still a lot, but not so much that a lower paid worker felt s/he couldn't ever make the same. Nowadays, typically a CEO earns hundreds of times more money than the least paid worker, and that doesn't even take into account bonuses, stock plans, golden parachutes, and other "perks".

Republicans and conservative Democrats argue that CEOs are what this country needs, because they have a "proven" track record of making money.

That's correct, technically. CEOs do make money: for themselves and their management. But if the true measure of a CEOs performance is worker compensation and productivity, workplake satisfaction and health, CEOs have failed miserably.

And isn't that the real problem here? A CEO will not care if a husband and father loses his job so that a foreigner can have it. A CEO does not care if workers are underpaid and overstressed, so long as output is increased. A CEO wouldn't even care if a nominally "American" company merely has its headquarters and management in the U.S., while its entire actual workforce is in China or Malaysia.

CEO's don't care who does what, where, how, and why, so long as the company makes money.

Why in the world would we want a CEO as our elected representative? If you think it's because "they create jobs", please tell me what jobs they have created for YOU in this last decade.

Answer 1

It kills our democracy. Nobody other than the rich have any representation. Its a sad joke.

Answer 2

Actually most CEO's know about running in the black instead of the red. They also know how to pull the string on programs that don't work. I would rather have small business CEO's running for office instead of career politicians who have never been in the work force and don't know anything about what the average American is going through.



I also think it is long past time to have term limits across the board and limit ANY politician to 20 years of service at ALL levels. The Federal Government is running for the second year straight a trillion plus deficit. This is not sustainable. By caving into unions and more government bureaucracy will not fix this problem.

Answer 3

Corporations give Americans plenty of jobs. The problem is that many are minimum wage, part-time, low to no benefit jobs that have zero career potential. The jobs that do have decent pay and benefits are always ready to be cut or out sourced at a moments notice to increase profits. The flaw with CEO's and Corporations in general is their mantra that record breaking profits must be increased compared to the previous quarter or year every time, no matter what the expense to the public, government, or it's workers is.



Many of the CEO's running currently are not "small business" owners at all, but have millions of their own cash to burn through to buy their way into seats of power. Linda McMahon, Carly Fiorina, and Meg Whitman were all CEO's of multinational Corporations that by no means could be considered small businesses. Perhaps our most famous CEO in power was none other than Dick Cheney and no matter if you're a Republicrat or Democan, it can be agreed that at best he showed favoritism to his former industry and at worst helped begin a war to profit them.



Those that would say that commies and socialists would tear this country apart, need to look around. It's already torn apart. Capitalism, socialism, and communism in their purest forms are all flawed systems that have one common trait that brings them down time and time again: the corruption that men bestow upon them. What America needs and formerly prospered on was a combination of all three of those systems. While companies were making money hand over fist, Unions fought to build our middle class and get paid decently for their work and we need to have more Unionizing in this country to balance the power between big business and the average workers. Those people that compare Unions to Marxists are utterly insane, as Unions are responsible for building the middle class and preventing us from turning into Mexico 2.0 sooner than we are. I would ask these same people; "What is wrong with organizing a workforce in order to be paid what their labor is worth?" I think it's safe to say that most Americans don't want Welfare or Foodstamps or bailouts, but jobs that pay and treat them fairly while they bust their asses to do them.



Corporations have also almost single handedly given rise to China (who owns America trough debt and claims to be Communist) at the expense of American jobs. The WTO and NAFTA are other programs brought about at the behest of banks and corporations that have helped destroy this country economically and need to be abolished, as they are not helping raise all boats but instead are destroying our country and the countries we trade with. The hard core Ayn Rand worshipping Laisse Faire Capitalists out there fail to realize that what we have is what Rand preached; true capitalism and it has lead us down a road where the rich elite control this country through government lobbyists and back room deals. The great industrialists who invented ingenious products or methods are dead, we are left with Companies that produce nothing of value but still manage to siphon wealth from our people through crafty accounting tricks and tax loop holes.



These and many more terrible traits are what Plutocracy and the CEO's that run things have brought to America, so no I don't think we need them, or their profit at any cost business models, in our government, as they have been for decades. We need more real Americans, i.e. poor and middle class workers, small business owners, and most importantly, independents, in our congress and white house. Only through comprehensive campaign finance reform will we ever achieve this, and since the Citizens United case is allowing unlimited corporate dollars to be funneled into this election cycle, the chances are slim to none of that happening short of a revolution.

Answer 4

They walk away with golden parachutes whilst many human beings go through economically. they might desire to take transport of lead balloons dropped from 10,000 ft. How can everyone sense sorry for a team of bandits that fly to respond to questions in D.C. in inner maximum jets? those people who have been derelict of their responsibilities and function money saved in offshore debts decide for money from all tax paying voters? What a crock! If the government desires to molly coddle those no classification con artists and that they in all threat will then the yank taxpayers might desire to acquire some reward by applying potential of of pastime on a private loan that the government might dole out. If no longer paid back then all of their materials might desire to be confiscated and auctioned off.

Answer 5

Can't be worse than someone who never did anything but be a community organizer. A CEO would at least have some experience in running something.



Who ever thought a man who did nothing but go to school and make speeches could run a country.... well we have learned.. HE CANNOT!

Answer 6

Do we really want Community Organizers running for office?

Answer 7

Nah, we want Marxist community organizers. They can destroy America in no time at all. Just watch.