I am a retired corporate executive who spent about 30 years in corporate life. Administration and finance was my background and field of experience. I have an MBA from the University of Georgia, but I never went to school to prepare for a CPA degree. Because I did not have this professional credential, there were some positions during my career that were not open to me, even if I had the knowledge and experience to do the job. Now, let me go to my point.
One of the most vociferous spokesperson (Tancredo) of the right wing Tea Party movement suggested that we should have a literacy test before people are allowed to vote. I found myself in agreement with this man, perhaps for different reasons. He probably wanted to use this pre-requisite as a tool to keep some undesirable elements in society (in his view) from voting.
A test of qualifications is required for any job, except for the job to be a member of Congress. That lack of testing for our honorable representatives results in the shameful and unbelievable state of affairs observed when our representatives in Washington discuss and give opinions on matters about which they are ignorant. We have people in congress that never took a basic accounting, economics, or finance course. Even so, they are required to analyze, give opinions, and contribute to the creation of laws in an effort to keep our society from going bankrupt. We remain paralyzed going from crisis to crisis, because our honorable representatives are unprepared to understand what is happening in the world they are supposed to govern.
Why do we not require our members of Congress to pass a technical literacy test? Why? Why not? If we did, we would be assured that they have minimal qualifications to hold their jobs.
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It is ironic, isn't it? We take our car to be serviced/repaired by talented mechanics, pay for our children to be taught by the wisest professors, entrust our retirement funds to those with demonstrated competence in fund management, and hope our family is cared for by the most erudite medical professionals - yet such critical decisions guiding the fate of our country are often made by individuals with little personal experience/training in the subject matter they express judgment on, at best hoping to make the right decision for the future of their country, at worst politically and financially motivated to maintain their constituent base.
ReplyDeleteThanks for your comment, Carlos. I think you are right on target. No corporation would hire anybody, even for lower clerical jobs, if the applicant was not qualified. But for Congress? Just get enough supporters who think you are competent, whatever the competency may be, and you are in.
ReplyDeleteThis country's founders established a republic for the people and by the people. Legislature to be made up of common folk - butchers, bakers, candlestick makers and farmers. Today that would include docs, auto mechanics, accountants, and even a few lawyers. Then, the people were to go back to productive lives doing whatever they did to earn a living.
ReplyDeleteUnfortunately, we have wound up with professional legislators I offer for your consideration that tower of legislative integrity Charley Rangle. He has served twenty terms. Started very poor, now very rich.
It has been said that we would be better off if we chose the legislature by picking people at random out of the phone book. I am inclined to agree -- as long as they are term limited.
Look at the current administration out of all of the advisors, something like 7% actually have real world business experience. The rest are either political pros, or from academia, and spend their time coming up with obtuse concepts and inventing double speak to justify those concepts -- "created or saved jobs" for example.
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