Sometimes you wonder if America’s power structure is just running on autopilot. Outrageous examples of bad management surface and we hear a string of people in well-paid, responsible positions say, “Gee, I didn’t really know anything about that.” They sign their name to whatever piece of paper is shoved in front of them, apparently, and never think to question what’s being done.

It happens in the corporate world – see the Enron case, for one of many examples – and it happens in government – see the ongoing CIETC scandal right here at home.

Some corporate executives and a lot of board members seem to have forgotten one basic fact: An impressive job title isn’t an award; it’s an assignment. It’s not a permission slip to bask in glory; it means we expect you to take on a greater load of responsibility, like a weightlifter trying for a new personal best.

In theory, the system doesn’t care what you did yesterday to get this job. It only cares about what you’re doing now. That list of memberships and awards? That was yesterday; what can you do to help us today? We seem to recall someone once praising the late business leader John Chrystal for his own list of accomplishments, and him saying dismissively, “That’s obituary stuff.”

We’re in real trouble if the generation now holding the levers of power thinks you have won the game when you nail down a good job title, and after that you can sit back and enjoy the show.

We’re always going to have people who look for ways to cheat the system and grab all the money they can; that’s why we have jails. It’s the rest of us who aren’t doing our part. We can’t afford naivete; we learned back on the playground that not everybody plays by the rules. We can’t afford the kind of magical thinking that says, “If we don’t look for trouble, trouble will leave us alone.”

The world doesn’t work like that. If we don’t look for trouble, trouble will clean out our bank accounts.