A CEO President

"President Bush, when running for office, focused our attention on the fact that he was a CEO of a company, and that VP Cheney also was a CEO. Our government was to be run like a tight ship, a private, for profit enterprise. This was to be a new era, and a new tone was to be set in Washington.

I asked my colleagues (I work in high-tech) if they felt that they could talk to our CEO, or would they be afraid to honestly voice their opinion? Does the fear of our CEO indicate a democracy?

I have 30 years experience in high-tech, working for some of the largest semiconductor companies. Here is what I have learned from watching CEO's in the past:

- all pronouncements to the "outside" are carefully crafted PR statements. Material information is to be withheld and never disclosed.

- the employees have no right to know what deals the CEO and the company are making, while the deal is in progress.

- internal criticism is dealt with harshly.

- orders come down from the CEO, there is no chance for employees to question or discuss them, it is a directed situation.

- questions about layoffs, reorganizations, etc, are not answered truthfully, if at all.

- competition with other companies makes for a culture of 'us vs them', that includes 'cutting off the air supply' of your competitors.

- illegal behavior is ok, so long as a profit is made after paying the fines and legal fees. And wrongdoing is never admitted.

- profit is the only real motive, generosity and morality do not factor in.

- only advertising and public image count, actual behavior does not.

This seems to me to be the culture we have now in the White House. The function of CEO is in direct conflict with Democracy, it is much more like a dictatorship. Given that we now know about the CEO activities at Enron, WorldCom, Arthur Anderson, and many others, it should come as no surprise that we find that our current President and VP also behave in the same way."

A BUZZFLASH READER CONTRIBUTION by Bill Peterson

Our country is now being run in the fascist way of a company, and not in the Democratic way of a Republic. Advertising and PR have replaced the Truth, dissent is harshly stifled, and wrongdoing is never admitted.