Out With The Old
Mar 21, 2011
For the first time in our country’s history, we have municipalities that could possibly go bankrupt. We have a national government that is trillions of dollars in debt, and that number is growing by the second. Why do you think that is?
We have a HUGE problem with elected officials in this country today, and it’s called CAREER POLITICIANS. For most of these people, political service isn’t about the issues. It isn’t about what they’re going to do for their country or their constituents. It’s about getting elected…over and over and over again. Did you know that almost 50 members of Congress have actually died while in office since 1987? That’s ridiculous!!
Career politicians should be banned. We need to start running our governments as businesses, and who better to do that than businessmen and businesswomen? We should have men and women serving our country in political office that are business leaders in our society. We need to do this at a local and national level – our local and national governments deserve the best of the best the business world has to offer. These people should have proven themselves through a history of success in the business world. They should be people that will be able to take control, make the hard decisions, and affect positive change.
Do you think we would be in the situation we’re in now if we had local and national business leaders running our country? Of course not!!
Thomas Jefferson and the other Founding Fathers imagined that people would run for office, serve their term, and then go back to work. Did you know George Washington actually refused a third term as president for this reason? Jefferson thought that people were more likely to become corrupt the longer they stayed in office. And he couldn’t have been more right. Just look at what’s happening today. Career politicians have become consumed with a desire for money and power, and they are willing to do whatever it takes to keep it.
Serving your country in political office should be an honor and a privilege, not a career. We need businesspeople with relevant experience running a profitable business running our government, not career politicians. And we need new people voted into office on a regular basis. As long as politicians can make the business of politics into a convenient and profitable career, they will have every incentive in the world to think about the next election instead of the issues or their constituents.
It starts with us. Until stricter term limits are imposed on political office, it’s up to us to NOT keep reelecting the same people. What we’re doing now with career politicians isn’t working. We must demand fresh blood and new ideas, or we must resign ourselves to the dismal status quo we see in front of us today. And I, for one, am not ready to accept that fate.
I TOTALLY agree with you JZ.
That’s why I like the idea of Donald Trump running for President in 2012.
I also like the idea of YOU as his running mate…!
Seriously.
I think you BOTH could do a LOT of good things in Washington DC, for the country.
I’d even donate $$$ for your campaign.
If Obama capitalized his campaign through the Internet,
you’d multiply his contributions 1000 times
Waddya say…?
~ S
Thanks JZ, for answering some of my queries, I knew you weren’t a fan of scoundrel politicians.
I feel some of your comments are a bit idealistic, how can we ever quantify business success, then get those people to run? You bring it all home though, with your comment to voters, stop reelecting them.
Another great post!
You make some good points here with regard to nothing being accomplished, but I don’t think businessmen and women are guilt free when it comes to the current state of things. First many of the career politicians started out as successful business people, did they suddenly lose the skills you indicate all good business people have when they took office? Second the corporations and their funded Lobby armies are just as responsible for our current situation as the politicians. The fact they lie and cheat people, don’t pay their fair share of taxes, and don’t care what happens to anything except profits certainly share in the creation of our situation. And then there is the constant fighting by the politicians. Spending more time posturing than acting. Will that change because they were recently business people? I venture to think not. Maybe less party focus and more accomplishment focus would do us the most good. How about performance pay for politicians – do something and get paid, do nothing and don’t get paid. Couple that with reduction of military spending for useless wars and we might begin to turn the corner towards a better America and a better world.
JZ, term limits are key. We have them for presidents, why not members of Congress?
I do like Steve’s suggestion to run for office, but first you need to write that book.
Thanks for taking the time to write this piece. I appreciate the call to action.
Aaron@Biebert
“It is never about doing one thing right. It is always about doing all things better.”
Maybe you remember those words.
I think you’ve addressed a few slices of the pie, but there are many more pieces to cover.
But so far I agree with you, baby diapers and politicians should be changed regularly.
NEWS FLASH- big business does run the country. That’s why we’re in the mess we are in now.
ALSO- Donald Trump is a putz! His business ventures have gone bankrupt at least 4 times.
yeah, just who we need to get the country back on it’s feet.
I do agree with term limits though, absolutely.
Excellent!
Depends on the business man/woman – most “highly successful” are more concerned about the bottom line, and/or making their shareholders happy (i.e. the wealthy portion of the world) than the “common employees” (normal lower-and-middle class people). Hmm, sounds pretty much like what’s going on in government now anyways…
Term limits – great idea. However, a career politician moves from office to office – so the problem can’t be solved by term limits alone. When a term limit expires they just move on and infect the next office. What’s needed, and completely feasible today, is for people brave enough to voice specific rational points about what they don’t like about a bad politician.
Unless of course that politician, corrupt or not, might be needed one day. In which case a good business person might opt to lay low in the interest of getting along.
Maybe that’s the essence of what separates politicians from business people. Without controversy and polarization it’s hard to galvanize political attention, whereas in business more of a mutualism is practiced where the idea is to make money with minimal cost and where controversy and polarization are liabilities. Maybe a business person would do less finger pointing and more back slapping? Maybe they’d look across the aisle and remember that they’re going to need to work with “those other folks over there” if they want anything to happen.