Why the Business of the US Federal Government will Fail.

The Enterprise Blog ^ | November 25, 2009 | Nick Schulz

[Art in Idaho]

Help Wanted, No Private Sector Experience Required

By Nick Schulz

November 25, 2009, 8:19 am

A friend sends along the following chart from a J.P. Morgan research report. It examines the prior private sector experience of the cabinet officials since 1900 that one might expect a president to turn to in seeking advice about helping the economy. It includes secretaries of State, Commerce, Treasury, Agriculture, Interior, Labor, Transportation, Energy, and Housing & Urban Development, and excludes Postmaster General, Navy, War, Health, Education & Welfare, Veterans Affairs, and Homeland Security—432 cabinet members in all.

Rest of Article Here

[Art in Idaho]

Government doesn't work. It really doesn't work when less than 10% of the 432 Cabinet members of the Obama administration have any Private Sector experience. Check out the graph. Less than 10% of these people have done a payroll or fought to create and run a business. Scary. .

[Vigilanteman]

Really eye-popping. Exactly six presidents in the last century appointed more cabinet members with private sector experience than those without. Five of the six were Republicans. Two presidents appointed an exact 50-50 mix of cabinet members with and without private sector experience. But not one even broke the 60% barrier in cabinet appointments with private sector experience.

Obozo's cabinet is, by far, the worst in number of cabinet appointments with this experience. Nobody else even comes close to less than 10%.

[sphinx]

The chart doesn't discuss methodology but I would guess it is based on cumulative years of experience in the public vs. private sectors for the selected range of cabinet members. That would strike me as a fair metric if that is indeed what the authors did.

This is indeed eye-opening. If the methodology is sound, this could have legs.