The impossible CEO

Imagine a job with the following conditions:

• You are on call 24/7/365, no excuses.
• You are indirectly responsible for the allocation of billions of dollars, as well as millions of employees, some of whom will, as the cost of doing business, lose their lives working under you.
  
• You will be expected to travel frequently, at times on little-to-no notice.
  
• You will inevitably make (or have made for you) enough enemies that you will require round-the-clock protection from an elite security force.
• In all but your most closed-door moments, you will be expected to be more informed and more competent than anyone around you, and unfailingly polite to even your most vicious critics.
• Attempting to cover up your malfeasance can cost you your job.
  
• Regardless of the kind of job you do, you will be replaced eventually anyway.
  

Here are the benefits:

• You have the use of a private jet.
• Your living accommodations, including cleaning staff, private chef and gardener, are provided.
• You have access to top-of-the-line health care, which is guaranteed for life.
• You are also guaranteed a pension and security services following your retirement.
• Your base salary is approximately $400,000 a year. No stock options, no performance bonuses, and certainly no golden parachute.
  

As my gentle reader has already guessed, the "CEO" described is the President of the United States. But--regardless of what you think of past or present holders of that office--take a comparative look at the responsibility-to-reward ratio. How many heavy-roller CEOs would take on those demands, when the pay would put them in the mere upper 1% of U.S. wage-earners? I think I can safely say you'd be laughed out of darned near every corner office in the land if you walked in with a recruiting offer like that.

If that doesn't put some perspective on the fundamental disconnect between risk and reward within the fiction we call mega-capitalism, I don't know what will.