The Captain Goes Down with the Ship

[AllentownJake]

Its an old concept. Once upon a time when ships were sailing the seas it was required for a captain to be the last one on the life boats. The captain and his officers were the first ones on the boat and they were the last ones off.

We have changed as a society in that the Captain of a corporation appears to be the first one on the lifeboat if things fail.

The concept was rather simple. If you as a captain screwed up and sank the ship, you'd be the least likely to survive. Now in corporate America if you crash the ship, your survival is ensured, and your crashing the ship is rewarded. You get millions of dollars, a pension, and health benefits for the rest of your life to leave. There really are little consequences for crashing the ship. Hell, you even might be given a new ship to pilot in a few weeks.

Time for us to remember that old maritime concept with our business leaders. If you crash the ship, you go down with it.

[geckosfeet]

1. Agreed. However, blaming ones charges for ones failures in leadership

is a management technique that has been elevated to an art form in modern corporate culture.

[havocmom]

2. Agree. Would like to widen the scope also: Start a war and you lead the first charge

live, in person, at the head of the column. Make the chicken hawks think about their own safety if they insist on starting fights ;)

BTW, Good to see you here this morning.

[DCKit]

22. Great idea.... the NeoCon walruses leading the charge. It'd be 300 years...

before anyone took U.S. seriously again.

The humor of your idea appeals to me greatly.

[Ikonoklast]

3. Agreed. At one time, if you were running the show, and made a bad

decision costing the company you were hired to run customer, income, and market share, you got your head handed to you at the next board meeting.

Now, in this weird parallel universe, even catastrophic management failure is rewarded lavishly.


It's like getting called up to Major Leagues, then batting .190 with thirty-two errors, and getting a six-year twenty million dollar contract for the effort.

[EvolveOrConvolve]

4. Great analogy!

When the CEO is in bed with the Chairman of the Board (or they are the same person), and both are in bed with the board of directors, it's become easy for these guys to set things up nicely for themselves. There is very little accountability, and I think it's something that needs to be regulated more stringently. But getting the gov't to regulate these guys is like pulling teeth. The groups of people in gov't and corporation are so intertwined that it will never happen until we have a president with the balls to appoint real industry watchdogs to these positions.

[AllentownJake]

14. They have a Union

A very powerful union. Everything, everything comes back to supply and demand. Eventually if you sell shit there is little demand for what you are selling.

Its why there was such a push for them to get the Social Security money. The demand for American company stocks was hitting the skids.

I pulled out of the stock market. I don't trust a single balance sheet, income statement or statement of cash flows right now.

There are little consequences for falsifying them and the auditors are paid to look the other way or incompetent.

[EvolveOrConvolve]

17. So how do we change the system so that they are sufficiently regulated?

There is a fraternity of power that runs both the corporations and the government groups that regulate them. How does that change, especially when national political campaigns are largely funded by this fraternity?

[cascadiance]

21. We should push for a bipartisan no-confidence vote to force re-elections

or some other grass-roots initiated means to push people out of office. It would require something like a super majority to take effect, but with the way things are now, if this were in place, I think we could force some re-elections right now of the government, or other things that would make them think twice about shirking their responsibilities to their real constituencies, not the "corporate person" constituencies they now serve. I think there are many Republicans and independents out there, that even if they disagree with us on many other issues, also read the writing on the wall of how the government is getting "fixed" against us. If we all demanded it in next election cycle (which for our economy to repair itself unfortunately might be too late), then perhaps we could force their hand. Maybe if enough grass roots groups unite together and demand this sort of "lever" we can have over a corrupt non-accountable government, it might get some of them to act now to protect their spots in 2010 election.

I think it is something that we should talk about to see if we can even work together with other more grass roots conservative groups (Ron Paul types), to perhaps get a unified stand on this.

[truedelphi]

18. We could start by enforcing the laws already there

That says that the people at the Top Helm of the Ship of State, ie Bernanke and Geithner, cannot have their cozy deals with Goldman Sachs going on 24/7.

[_dynamicdems]

5. Too bad it wasn't remembered when Shrub was at the helm.

It does seems to apply to the Republican party. The Elephan is sinking for sure. A minor consolation, I suppose.

[ShamelessHussy]

6. Excellent Analogy and that is exactly why we are in our current perdicament - 0 consequences

for their destructive behavior.

Actually, I take that back... they are actually rewarded (as you noted) and therefore guarantees this abominable behavior, and negative consequence for society at large, shall continue.

[mia]

7. CEOs are set up for this with their employment contracts...

"golden parachutes" and other perks.

Heartless as it seems,those who are best able to overlook the needs of the masses are rewarded the most.

[patrice]

9. Those we can get along without the easiest.

[patrice]

8. REALLY old concept. Ever hear of the Corn King? Read in Sir JG Frazer's The Golden Bough

- an anthropological review of world religions and mythologies.

According to some, there was a practice in some pre-Christian matrilineal tribes that when the male leader screwed up too much, got involved in too many wars, decided suits unjustly, didn't manage the crops and livestock right, he'd be drugged and sacrificed and the oldest priestess would pick another.

[spin]

10. K&R (n/t)

[Chemisse]

11. In those days there was such a thing as honor

Principles play no part in large corporations and honor is a serious liability.

That's why they can sell us dangerous things (calculating the profits versus the lawsuit costs) knowing people will die. That's why they deny health care procedures, sell poorly tested pharmaceuticals, and rape the environment.

[undeterred]

12. Lets drop them off in the north Atlantic ocean and wish them good luck.

[cascadiance]

13. Kenneth Lay is probably still alive sipping Mai Tais in the Caymans

with his off-shore banking accounts having him and his friends set for life there...

[AllentownJake]

15. Kenny's dead

he ripped off other rich people. Samething with Bernie M. They broke the Union rules.

[rrneck]

16. Another nautical tradition that could be revived.

[Stinky The Clown]

19. In some Asian cultures, a failure is a matter of personal dishonor with a culturally accepted remedy

[kenny blankenship]

20. Watch either version of Treasure Island. That's corporate captaincy illustrated with diagrams

very entertaining too. Even Disney couldn't fuck up that story.