Daily Podcast: Affluenza

As F. Scott Fitzgerald famously opined, the rich aren't like you and me. Ipso facto. What would you be like if you could do anything you wanted to do from childhood, without ever having to acknowledge (never mind deal with) the consequences of your actions? If you could simply walk away from school, job, marriage, even your home town and start again? It's no wonder that the children of the super-rich are prone to drug addiction, failed relationships and depression. No sympathy? At the risk of trampling on PC notions (for the fiftieth time today), these "poor little rich kids" have more potential positive impact on society than people with less financial resources. All of which is my way of saying my heart goes out to Bill Ford. Clearly, Bill wants to make a difference in this world. Clearly, he doesn't understand his own limitations– because he's never had to. Turning over the corporate reins to Alan Mulally was the right thing to do for Ford, but, perhaps, the wrong thing for Bill. In the same sense, starting-up this new think tank is a bad idea. Ford needs to ground himself in reality, rather than drift off into the world of fantastic ideas. How do I know this? Bill's legacy at Ford speaks for itself. And the man who left it behind.