Yeah yeah – should be posting more about theology and the Christian life.
But this sure got my attention.
How often do we hear that our leaders should reflect the American population? Why do we need an Hispanic Supreme Court justice? So that Hispanic Americans feel represented. We need more women in Congress. We would like to see an African-American mayor for a city that is predominantly African-American.
One can debate whether this argument makes sense or not – in some ways it does in some ways it is characteristically anti-intellectualist – but for the moment let us say fair enough. Let us for the sake of argument accept at least to some degree the idea(l) of proportionate representation.
With me so far? Good.
Those who work in the public sector – government and other state agencies and services and so on – have since the 1950′s made up 15 to 19 percent of the American population. Which is to say since the 1950′s 81 to 85 percent of the American population works in the private sector. So what kind of proportionate representation do we see in various presidential administrations?
Breathtaking is it not? Less than 10% of cabinet appointments in the Obama administration have any private sector experience. Know what it is like to work for a business. Know what it is like to run a business. Understand from personal experience how government taxes and regulations can encourage or hinder economic growth. Do notice how relatively low the percentage is also for the Kennedy Carter and Clinton administrations. I will not suggest a correlation between private sector experience and a healthy economy because – and we need to be honest – we had economic growth and balanced budgets during the Clinton years. So government wonks are not always inimical to economic prosperity.
But less than ten percent? You gotta be kidding me. A bunch of college kids who never ran a business think they can fix the American economy?
H/T Red Stick Rant -> The (American) Enterprise Blog.
