But looking more widely, the board of directors and the voters who select leaders might well be considered untrustworthy. Do they have the skills and knowledge necessary to the task of hiring the right person? I would say the answer is no. Boards are chosen for their name value, not their ability, and they take the positions as sinecures, not responsibilities.

Thus it is that we have a socialized state — owners of public (“people’s”) corporations are stockholders who have little interest in who runs the business and little ability to affect the choice of its management, a large portion of the economy is financed or regulated by a government chosen by and run by many people — and the many take no responsibility — a phenomenon known as the “tragedy of the commons.”

Finally, one might observe that one element of the current problem is that no leader can either know or control everything in an immense organization. Should the head of state be responsible for a murder committed by one of his citizens? What about deaths from a mistaken bombing by his military? Drawing the line is not so simple. Thus Ronald Reagan’s cohorts came up with “plausible deniability” — an excuse for not knowing what is going on.