“Am I the only guy in this country who’s fed up with what’s happening? Where the hell is our outrage? We should be screaming bloody murder. We’ve got a gang of clueless bozos steering our ship of state right over a cliff, we’ve got corporate gangsters stealing us blind, and we can’t even clean up after a hurricane much less build a hybrid car. But instead of getting mad, everyone sits around and nods their heads when the politicians say, “Stay the course.” Stay the course? You’ve got to be kidding. This is America, not the damned Titanic. I’ll give you a sound bite: Throw the bums out!” … Lee Iacocca
Marcus Can’t Put Down Iacocca’s “Where Have All The Leaders Gone?”
Robert came back from his last trip to the USA and tossed a book onto the table – Iacocca’s “Where Have All The Leaders Gone?
He said “Read it, substitute the word ‘Barbados’ for USA and tell me what you think.”
That was two days ago and I’m now at page 111, almost half way through the book. I can’t put it down.
Lee Iacocca is widely known as the creator of the Ford Mustang, and later the mini-van concept when he was running Chrysler. I had pictured him as some sort of right-wing-Republican-til-death – an industrialist who believes himself privileged because he worked hard but lucked out.
I have to admit that I was wrong in my preconceptions.
Seeing as how I haven’t read the entire work, I can’t really give a credible book report, but I’ll leave you with a few quotes…
People, look around. This country has some serious issues. Security. The economy. Global warming. Healthcare. Energy. Iraq. In most of these cases, the so-called leaders charged with confronting these problems are only compounding them with their lack of accountability and often questionable motives. Instead of looking for real solutions, they seem to be looking out for number one.
It’s not just elected leaders like George W. Bush and Dick Cheney either. It’s many of the executives who occupy the top rungs of this country’s corporate ladder. Your Kenneth Lays and Jeffrey Skillings and Dennis Kozlowskis – a few guys who took Michael Douglas’ line in the movie Wall Street a little too seriously. “Greed is good,” he said. These days, it seems more of our leaders believe that than ever before.”
“I hardly recognize this country anymore. The President of the United States is given a free pass to ignore the Constitution, tap our phones, and lead us to war on a pack of lies. Congress responds to record deficits by passing a huge tax cut for the walthy (thanks, but I don’t need it). The most famous business leaders are not the innovators but the guys in handcuffs. While we’re fiddling in Iraq, the Middle East is burning and nobody seems to know what to do.”
“And the press is waving pom-poms instead of asking hard questions.”
“We voted for them – or at least some of us did. But I’ll tel you what we didn’t do. We didn’t agree to suspend the Constitution. We didn’t agree to stop asking questions or demanding answers. Some of us are sick and tired of people who call free speech treason. Where I come from that’s a dictatorship, not a democracy.
Where are the voices of leaders who can inspire us to action and make us stand taller? What happened to the strong and resolute party of Lincoln? What happened to the courageous, populist party of FDR and Truman? There was a time in this country when the voices of great leaders lifted us up and made us want to do better. Where have all the leaders gone?”
“A Hell of a Mess
So here’s where we stand. We’re immersed in a bloody war with no plan for winning and no plan for leaving. We’re running the biggest deficit in the history of the country. We’re losing the manufacturing edge to Asia, while our once-great companies are getting slaughtered by health care costs. Gas prices are skyrocketing, and nobody in power has a coherent energy policy. Our schools are in trouble. Our borders are like sieves. The middle class is being squeezed every which way. These are times that cry out for leadership.
But when you look around, you’ve got to ask: “Where have all the leaders gone?” Where are the curious, creative communicators? Where are the people of character, courage, conviction, competence, and common sense? I may be a sucker for alliteration, but I think you get the point.
Name me a leader who has a better idea for homeland security than making us take off our shoes in airports and throw away our shampoo? We’ve spent billions of dollars building a huge new bureaucracy, and all we know how to do is react to things that have already happened.
Name me one leader who emerged from the crisis of Hurricane Katrina. Congress has yet to spend a single day evaluating the response to the hurricane, or demanding accountability for the decisions that were made in the crucial hours after the storm. Everyone’s hunkering down, fingers crossed, hoping it doesn’t happen again. Now, that’s just crazy. Storms happen. Deal with it. Make a plan. Figure out what you’re going to do the next time.
Name me an industry leader who is thinking creatively about how we can restore our competitive edge in manufacturing. Who would have believed that there could ever be a time when “the Big Three” referred to Japanese car companies? How did this happen—and more important, what are we going to do about it?
Name me a government leader who can articulate a plan for paying down the debt, or solving the energy crisis, or managing the health care problem. The silence is deafening. But these are the crises that are eating away at our country and milking the middle class dry.
I have news for the gang in Congress. We didn’t elect you to sit on your asses and do nothing and remain silent while our democracy is being hijacked and our greatness is being replaced with mediocrity. What is everybody so afraid of? That some bobblehead on Fox News will call them a name? Give me a break. Why don’t you guys show some spine for a change?”
Further Reading
Lee Iacocca – Personal Website
Wikipedia – Lee Iacocca
Barbados Free Press 
I understand when you say “Read it, substitute the word ‘Barbados’ for USA”
my sentiments exactly
balanced budgets, long term interests, tax incentives for businesses to stay in the US, long term energy solutions, health care, The Geneva convention etc etc have been replaced by a bunch of self serving greedy ( not to mention stupid ) politicians and businessmen.
Its amazingly pathetic!
Meanwhile in Barbados ,we have no ITAL as promised, and no outrage that the CJ, the Director of Public Prosecutions and some complicit bureaucrats still have their jobs.
Did we ever have any leaders of integrity?
THE WORLD – The ENTIRE WORLD- awaits, no.. LONGS FOR the exit of Chicken Geo.W.Bush.
so things can get back on logical track!
No single United States President has wrought more direct and indirect havoc on civilization.
This unfortunate guy(who should never have been there in the first place,far les re-elected)
will be going down in the history books as baaaaad.
Sorry dude, but that’s your unfortunate reality!
We have another 7 months until the turnaround.
I just hope we can all survive it, that long.
The U.S.Dollar is going going gone because of the draining effect Geo’s idiot,endless War In Iraq is having on the U.S.economy – nothing less..nothing more.
Simple so!
And with the USD goes our little Bajan Dollar!
Only the TT Dolar stands a chance,
mainly bcoz it’s “pegged” to
the price of Oil !!
Speaking of which…
Bookmark THIS
http://www.oil-price.net/
No Leaders in the USA – No new Hero in Barbados.
I wonder if David Thompson, on National Hero’s day, even contemplated if he had what it takes to be a modern day Hero for Barbados.
It was easy for the USA to be an economic and military superpower in the 20th century which was an age of cheap energy and cheap oil, especially when the size of the USA’s own oil reserves made it easy for them to meet their own energy requirements and still have lots of surplus oil to export. However US oil production peaked in the early 1970’s as had been predicted would be the case by geologist M. King Hubbert, and now each year the US has to import a higher and higher percentage of its oil requirements at steadily increasing prices. Up to now, for economies to grow long term they need increasing quantities of energy, and as energy becomes harder and more expensive to obtain, it makes traditional economic growth harder to maintain. Looks like the big shots might have decided its now easier to increase their own wealth by looting the nation instead of attempting to engage in traditional entrepreneurship.
Cheap oil for the US (and the rest of the world too) could be compared to a million dollar inheritance a rich and indulgent uncle leaves for a somewhat ne’er do well nephew who, instead of investing the money wisely and living off the interest, blows the whole wad in a few years on fast cars, fast women and fast living in general and then finds after the money came to an end so had his life on easy street. He would now have to sell off his assets and take a job digging ditches if he wanted to eat and have a roof over his head – something of a climbdown for a former jet setting playboy.
Green Monkey
It reminds me of the late footballer George Best, who said words to the effect: “I spent most of my money on women, booze, and fast cars. I squandered the rest!”
Where have they gone Lee?.. in the back pocket of the Illuminati.
One nation (USA) somehow manages to use 25% of the world’s oil(on a day to day basis)
How is that possible?
Is that sustainable?
For how long?
Does that nation see a problem with this sorta consumption rate for ONE nation?
Is it the nation with the most people?
Is it squander, greed, gluttony wastage
– or a deliciously decadent combination of all of the above?
Whuh gwan?
Much of this so called economic decline is pure fantasy and may be best understood in relation to the huge growth and profits that many of the conglomerates achieved in the 1990’s.
The oil companies are making more money than ever before.
The leading banks (who set up this recent mortgage debacle in the states) have made huge profits and are happily gobbling up all the other banks and companies that are getting hurt.
It is simply about the ruling filthy rich elite consolidating their wealth. The squeeze is on to such an extent that the poor will have lost all will to resist. Nearly everyone is so caught up in the credit trap that they will bow to almost any working conditions and unreasonable terms of employment in order to maintain a lifestyle.
Learning humility and the joy of inner comfort without materialism will go a LONG way in getting through these times and overcoming economic slavery.
Grow food and live.
Peace
Maat – I can’t agree with you anymore.Those mega profits are all behind the ‘isfet’ we now find ourselves in.When mankind has a mental overhaul(I don’t see it coming anytime soon) perhaps then we will come to grip with food production,globe warming,poverty,aids etc.Our world leaders are in a word… pathetic.
The U.S. has more than $9 trillion in public debt. The wealth gap between the rich and the middle class is increasing. Our political leaders are inept and the rest of us know it. Their corruption is widespread, nonpartisan and tolerated by us. The gravity of our apathy bears a direct correlation to the size of our national debt. We, as a body politic, could institute two simple changes that would provide us with a better quality of political leadership – one that is grounded in public service and moral integrity instead of self aggrandizement and greed. We could institute these changes by public referendum, bypassing Congress. We could enact a law that required all political contributions to go through a blind trust administered by the Justice Dept. under criminally sanctioned requirements of confidentiality and nondisclosure. In other words, the political candidate would not know the amount of the contribution or the identity of the contributor. This would eliminate the incentive to bribe and to be bribed.
Secondly, the law could recognize the illegality of individual Congressmen earmarking taxpayer funds for special interest contributors, without the benefit of Congressional approval (which is required for the appropriation of taxpayer funds by the Constitution and the oath of office taken by each Congressman). These are totally non partisan institutional changes that would help clean up the system and encourage a better type of person to run for public office. Our debate about which politician is better able to serve the public is idle chatter until the system is modified to accomplish public service as its primary goal. Unfortunately all of the presidential candidates are products of the same corrupt political environment and are equally capable of gaming the system to perpetuate their own positions of power and self interest.
Thank you, Barry, for confirming that some ordinary US citizens do realise that “something is rotten in the state of Denmark”.
It puzzles me how we all, in our much vaunted democratic societies, have, through inertia and politeness, allowed our politicians to turn the tables and make the citizens accountable to them.
When the government fears the people that is true democracy.
When the people fear the government that is tyranny.
https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/rankorder/2187rank.html
for a scary education in Who’s in The Red, and Who’s in The Black.
Trinidad is some $ 3,884,000,000 in the Black!
and yet “rich” USA is a mere $ 747,100,000,000 in the Red!
Kinda makes you wonder how the GWNN countries still maintain control over whatever they think they have control over!
(certainly not their own false economies)
(GWNN=Great White Northern Nato)
Down at the bottom of the page
where the Broke Scoundrels lurk,
look and tell me ‘who’ you see!
How long can this appalling situation obtain??
What an interesting lesson this CIA World Factbook website is!
Did you see the article in today’s CNN.com about women forced to live in cars? – having given up houses now too expensive to live in?
I’m talking Sacramento, Calif.
not Brooklyn!
http://edition.cnn.com/2008/LIVING/wayoflife/05/19/homeless.mom/index.html?eref=rss_latest
Maat said above ”Learning humility and the joy of inner comfort without materialism will go a LONG way in getting through these times and overcoming economic slavery.
Grow food and live.”
Very, very well stated. Buy mostly only what you NEED and only a few things of what you WANT.
That way, ones own living costs reduce and the nation’s foreign exchange position improves if most of us do it.
WildyCoyte, ah, now you also have a point, on the ‘games’ behind this oil price manipulation.
Who is really in charge?!
Operation Hose America
by John Young | May 22, 2008 – 9:29am
article tools: email | print | read more John Young
No mulligans for this war president. George Bush says he’s staying off the links so that it not appear that he’s taking lightly the sacrifices of so many.
That doesn’t mean, however, that this White House has given up its No. 1 wartime pastime: misleading us.
To that end, day after day since shortly after 9/11, it has polished up and deployed a bag of big clubs. Shiny and steely, they have lent credibility to policymakers lacking it.
We speak of retired military officers who became as central to telling the war story on TV as reporters themselves — telling Americans that everything was as planned, that the claims leading us to war were right as rain.
These military TV analysts continue to be central to the story, portrayed as they are on TV news as independent voices.
SNIP
Don’t think for a second that the access granted these talking heads didn’t come with strings attached. The Times reported that the Pentagon spent hundreds of thousands of dollars hiring a company to monitor every phrase these individuals uttered to the media. One discouraging word about Iraq from any one them, and he’d be cut off.
Now, why haven’t you heard about this? Maybe because you’ve been watching TV news. After all, this is a broad indictment of it and the very media sirens that enabled Bush to con our nation into war. With John McCain reaching for the baton, Bush now seeks to lull the nation into never-ending occupation.
Arianna Huffington, on Huffingtonpost.com, is right to call the propaganda campaign, and the sustained media silence about it, “among the most shameful in the history of American journalism.”
http://smirkingchimp.com/thread/14778