Hi clo,
Unfortunately, being a CEO doesn't make a person a brilliant philosopher! Sometimes what makes a person a brilliant CEO makes them unfit to run a government. For instance, Herman Cain distills his message to a simple 9-9-9 plan. This sells pizza at an easy price. But it is not up to the task of curing an economy!
Gingrich, on the other hand, thinks spraying the market with a high volume of poorly considered thoughts is equivalent to creative thinking. To people who ponder things a bit longer, what he does seems a bit more like the thing male cats do when marking their territory. Awful whiff.
People who run companies generally think accounting types of thoughts. They think about how to make profits. This is a useful thing. But it is a mistake to presume that because such people do one thing well, they understand how to run another kind of organisation, in which the incentives are quite different. One might as well assume that because Michael Jordan was a great basketball player, he would also make a great baseball player. We know how that turned out.
Government thoughts dwell upon how to run a not-for-profit organisation with benefits which are measured in terms of national security, crime levels, the common good, the economic landscape and suchlike. Different set of levers. I can only think of a few CEOs whose views on politics and economics are even a little bit surprising or engaging. So I am not altogether surprised that a CEO you have met is not especially insightful.
The mistake is to presume such a person has more insight than any other next-door-neighbour. Remember the Fiddler on the Roof?
"The most important men in town would come to fawn on me!
They would ask me to advise them,
Like a Solomon the Wise.
"If you please, Reb Tevye..."
"Pardon me, Reb Tevye..."
Posing problems that would cross a rabbi's eyes!
And it won't make one bit of difference if I answer right or wrong.
When you're rich, they think you really know!"
They really don't. And we have our own plod to prove it.
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