Monday, November 2, 2015

Businessmen make shitty presidents

8 comments:

Dan Lynch said...

And so do most politicians ?

Malmo's Ghost said...

..and so do most lawyers...

Tom Hickey said...

At a certain point, institutions become ungovernable, and probably societies, too. This is a problem with consolidation as the management issues that arose from firm conglomeration suggest.

This is a problem with liberalism. It tends to select poor leadership.

It is opposed by the Chinese system of actual meritocracy based on the Confucian Mandarin model of rigorous testing.

Russia is experimenting with a combined liberal-technocratic model, where local elections are democratic but higher office is by merit, selecting officials at higher levels based on actual performance.

Peter Pan said...

Well said Mike. The fawning over 'successful' businessmen makes them out to be gurus when they really aren't.

Btw, what makes for a good lawyer can translate to politicking skills. If you can persuade a jury, then maybe you can persuade bigger crowds.

Tom Hickey said...

In defense of lawyers in politics, governing under the rule of law has become highly developed and requires expertise in the law. So it is not unusual that lawyers would play a dominant role in governing, whereas in feudal times it was military expertise that was important for governing. In contrast, market-based capitalism requires a highly developed legal system to function since it is based on property rights.

Malmo's Ghost said...

Lawyers are over represented in politics at the national level. Period.

Also, there have been several Presidents who had business backgrounds who were terrific Chief Executives not the least of which was FDR:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/07/19/presidents-entrepreneurs_n_1684521.html

President Trump is going to be one of the greats, and he won't be a conservative toady either.

Roger Erickson said...

"If you can persuade a jury, then maybe you can persuade bigger crowds."

Of what? By that measure, all Oscar-winning actors should be leaders. :(

Peter Pan said...

Persuade them to believe their arguments. Indeed, actors could qualify. The quality of such candidates is another, more depressing matter.