[ExI] s&p 500 growth, was: RE:

[Adrian Tymes]

On Sun, May 8, 2016 at 7:08 PM, spike <spike66 at att.net> wrote:

> I don’t understand why we didn’t get any local startup CEOs to run.
>

Speaking as a local startup CEO, I can think of a few reasons.

Startup CEOs aren't often the ones with tens-to-hundreds of millions of
dollars to spend on something with very low odds of working.  (Granted,
Clinton and Trump have largely spent other peoples' money - but political
fundraising and raising funds from VCs require radically distinct pitches,
among other differences.)  With their own businesses, they think there's
some very good reason why they have much better odds than average; if they
didn't, they wouldn't be doing it.  For winning the Presidency or even just
a presidential nomination, it's harder to drum up that sort of advantage
before you decide to begin.

Running a business is not, no matter what Trump claims, like running a
nation, or even like running for office.  They can see where their skill
set does not apply.

But perhaps the most important is party-specific.

Running as third party: you have a MUCH better chance if you run as part of
a party that has serious resources - at least serious attempts at the
governorship and/or Congressional representation - in all 50 states.  The
Libertarian party, for example, is barely on the ballot in all 50 states;
there are no governors or Congresspeople who identify with it, let alone
legions of voters sworn to only vote for that party no matter what.

Running as Democrat: Hillary Clinton was on the ballot.  The party
machinery coalesced around her in a heartbeat.  It could be predicted, a
year ago today, that nobody else would have a serious chance.

Running as Republican: the current Republican base is, or at least seems to
be, largely religion-over-science, anti-intellectual, racist, misogynist,
and anti-effective-business while claiming to be pro-business.  In other
words, the opposite in many ways of your typical Silicon Valley startup CEO
- at least, the ones who have it together enough to get anywhere.
Therefore, the perception is that we would be hard pressed to win that
nomination.
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