Phil Cooke

President Obama's Relationship with the Business Community

As an owner of a small business myself, I’ve been somewhat disappointed in how anti-business President Obama seems to be.  We already knew he lacked experience in private business and never owned one, but I’ve been really surprised at how disinterested he is in the private sector – considering how important it is to lift the country out of the economic problems we’re facing.  After all, the real jobs that provide long term solutions are created by American business, particularly small businesses.  But now,
a comparative study by Michael Cembalest, the chief investment officer for JP Morgan Private Bank, reveals how out of balance this administration is on the issue compared with previous presidents. 

In comparing the balance of private versus public sector cabinet appointments of presidents between 1900-2009, Obama has the lowest number of private sector cabinet members by far.  While most previous presidents had at least 50% of their cabinet advisors with private sector experience hiring and firing, and running a business, President Obama’s cabinet has less than 10% with such expertise.  His cabinet is dominated by public employees.  Since the dominant engine of job growth is private business, it’s very surprising how little the president cares about hearing from that community.

Heather MacDonald, writing at secularright.org, was quoted in the Wall Street Journal regarding many who really are anti-business these days:

“The anti-business mindset . . . is worthy of a pampered adolescent who is searching for a cause with which to display his unique moral sensibility. It is not worthy of an adult who should be able to use his imagination, if not actual experience, to appreciate the extraordinary human effort that has gone into creating the delightful tools that we daily take for granted. On my desk sit various humble objects—a tiny clock, a stapler, a paper clip box, a Lucite cook book stand for holding up drafts and other papers while I type. Each object represents a fractal geometry of complexity, composed as it is of parts that themselves require enterprise to manufacture, assemble, and deliver, all born along on waves of energy and infrastructure to which yet another set of entrepreneurs contributed. The fact that all of those distributors and manufacturers tried to make a profit does not detract from the fact that they offered goods which enhance our lives. . . .  It is the ingratitude that kills me the most among anti-business types. The materials that furnish a single room in an American home required daring, perseverance, and organizational skill from millions of individuals over generations. I hope they all got filthy rich.”

What do you think?

This entry was posted on Sunday, January 24th, 2010 at 9:52 am and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.