(I’m reporting all this week at the Techonomy conference in Lake Tahoe, California. For more coverage, check out the Techonomy blog.)
During the dinner of the first night of the conference, Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos got up to answer a question from John Doerr of Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers. Doerr asked Bezos what it takes to create an Internet treasure. Doerr rattled off a few answers as to what it took for Amazon to succeed.
At the end of the video, Bezos asked Doerr and Dean Kamen to announced two amendments to the Constitution he’d like to make. They didn’t answer publicly, but later, holding court with Dean Kamen, John Doerr, and a few other Techonomists, Bezos said that if he had the power, the amendment he’d like to make is the following:
Every year, 10 percent of the Senate would have to leave the Senate and they could never run for office again.
Wow Bezos. What an astonishingly bad idea. Who’s going to pick the 10 percent? Is it going to be like Shirley Jackson’s “The Lottery”? Why not stone them to death or hire Logan from “Logan’s Run” to hunt them down when their hand starts flashing red. I’m assuming Bezos would want to fire the bottom 10 percent performing senators. Will we get to vote for that?
Did Bezos do this at Amazon? Firing your underperforming employees is common, but should you fire them and then never let them apply for a job at your company or any of your competitors? It’s such an obviously bad idea for any company, why would it would work well for the government?
Jeff, you know ecommerce. Keep at it. Glad you have no power to enact Constitutional law.
