Would CEOs Drive Mercedes If They Had To Clean Toilets To Earn Them?

I have 2 of my own toilets to clean and I don't drive a Mercedes, I still clean the toilets!

But to answer your question...I doubt it.

When you are up there and can make a show of humility, it isn't that humiliating. When you really are down, it's humiliating.

And America is being turned into a nation of aristocracies, like it was before the Great Depression. Wealth doesn't "trickle down" - that Reaganism is such a bold faced lie. Wealth mostly stays in its own circles.

I clean my own two toilets daily. I've worked at small businesses where it wasn't my "job" to clean toilets, but I took my turn because it was fair.

If I wanted a Mercedes badly enough, I'd take a job cleaning toilets. Should I be a prosperous CEO, I'd hire someone to clean the toilets, but I'd try not to leave a disgusting mess for them.

Did the President get a raise? I didn't think he made a million.

It is something to think about, Bill! Scrubbing toilet bowl with a brush is a simple job that doesn't require enormous physical strength or exceptional mental skills. It is the anathema associated with the job that makes it a big mountain to cross.

I agree with Susan...I clean my own toilet (we only have 1) and I've had those crappy jobs too where everyone had to rotate cleaning the bathroom. Still, I don't mind cleaning my own toilet...but cleaning up after a ton of other people's gross disgusting messes may be a bit too much for me to take. So, I'd say no. I would find another job where I could make a million and not have to clean poop!

Bill's Spirit -

Few American CEOs or CEO mostly anywhere are humble. They would much rather have a toilet installed in their Mercedes - let alone clean one. The caste system based on monetary inequality of the extreme kind is catching on in America. Too bad!

i don't want my job and i don't even have to clean toilets (but like most women, i clean my toilets at home). when i was younger i may have thought such things were beneath me, but as i get older, i realize that a job well done, performed with good intent and love is honorable no matter the task. i wish those in power took the same pride in what they do.

Soon, soon, can't be soon enough, we'll be working with composting toilets and other non-water toilets.
Yeah, they'll still have to be cleaned....And shoveled-out every so often, too! But we won't be dumping our stuff in our water anymore. YES!

Nothing should be beneath us or above us...cleaning toilets...yes, it keeps you humble and grounded. I'd do it without thinking twice.

I remember that Ghandi story directly from the movie. It was a great moment. I have met many so-called working class individuals in my life; (and, by economic and job description I am currently among that rank); I have met many upper-middle and upper-class individuals; (by education and growig up income, I was in that rank); I have to say, I prefer the down-home realism of those who work for a living.

On The Apprenticeb>College kids were behind in my estimation, compared to the Street Kids. At least, those without a college degree seemed to understand retail better (such as the basics of understanding cash register, how to bring in business, pricing, customer service) and all the rest that is the foundation of all business much better than the college kids.

As to your question, if CEOs could afford to buy a Mercedes after spedning a lifetime cleaning latrines, they would probably buy one. But, they'd be so burned out trying to eke out a living, they'd forget about their dreams.

Money changes people.

I think more CEOs and people in general should have to wear hats in their jobs. I mean real hats. More bathroom cleaning, more retail, more fast-food and other joe job jobs.

There's nothing like a hard day's work to appreciate the value of the dollar and the value of those in society, something CEOs, (Most of whom grew up in CEO-dominated communities such as Weston, Massachusetts, know little about.

Great article, Bill's Spirit.

Where I work, I am a (nursing) supervisor. That means I do not HAVE to do any of the dirty work but my staff knows that if they need help, I'm there for them. And we don't just clean the toilets..we clean the whole butt!!!!

donna, that would be funny if it were not so real!

Bill, I have featured this and your other article in The Renewed Activist.

I don't ususally have to clean the toilets in my house but I do get to unplug them on the average of once a week.

No big deal to me.

thanks for sharing

I once spent a summer cleaning toilets at a campground in exchange for a free campsite. I've never balked at cleaning a toilet, although I certainly have been ribbed for being so affable about doing the job.

It has always been the leisure of the wealthier classes that they could pay someone else to do the jobs that they themselves did not want to do. Somehow, that makes them better than others, at least in their own minds. Interestingly, being aristocratic or wealthy has never relieved their need for toilets, nor has it made their excrement smell like roses.

My thanks to everyone for their comments.

Kathryn - Thank you for featuring this in The Renewed Activist Group.

Mr. G told Mrs. G to go clean the latrine in the new community they were pulling together and she was offended. She was shocked. In truth I believe he felt that all things needed to change and that nobody was above anybody or below anybody, and I do think he would have left her to support his values had she not done so. His point, of course was that the big question was "how much are you willing to give up, or change?" Mr. G was a firewalker who walked within his legal limits and stood firm.

What a guy.

Anyway I don't think any CEO in this country would be caught doing such things.

A Working Class Hero is so hard to find.....

I have three toilets to clean and a litter box and I drive a mitsubishi!

I think most CEO's would die rather than clean their own toilets! In the film, "Roger and Me", the Ford CEO actually changed the oil in a car, but the GE CEO refused to change a light bulb. Probably thought it was beneath him.

And, do you think that the CEO who cleaned a toilet to show his "groundness" would actually do a good job?

Give me a toilet to clean anyday, rather than a CEO who thinks it's beneath him/her to clean one. I'm not even interested in the fancy car. Course, if I had that much money we'd use it to improve not only our lives, but the lives of others who needed it. I think we'd make bad rich people!

I already clean toilets for a living.

Now give me $360 million a year, punk!

::grin::

You never hear about someone who works one year as a CEO for a huge multimillion dollar paycheck, then uses that money to retire and live comfortably instead of extravagantly.

If anyone would like to test the theory that having money means you cannot possibly live a modest life, I'm accepting contributions for the Financial Extravagance Experiment...

''Of course... that's why they become CEOs...

A matter of value...

We all love CLEANLINESS and a ''MERCEDES BENZ SEDAN''

I clean my toilet and pick up dog poop....how much will I get paid!!...nothing!!

''In all the cars in the world that's the best fit, from where I would describe 'myself or my homebound personality and my works in literature'...''

''A Mercedes-Benz Sedan''

You can have your esteem always ready when driving a Sedan,
prudence and wise...

We all clean toilet/s...

I'm not 100% sure where this piece is leading? Are you attacking corporations? The CEO's who run them or something else?

So what that Gandhi scrubbed toilets, I believe most people have scrubbed a toilet or two in their lifetime. Does that make you a better person? How? Are CEO's bad people because they might not scrub toilets anymore?

hmm. point to ponder. I'm a filipino and i doubt the politicos here would clean toilets UNLESS it would ensure their tenure in office :(

Well this is one of those times that I am a month late and a dollar short. I did want to make a point I guess. Cleaning a toilet in your own home or of a friend, or one that is used by the public...is all done so in degrees. (I have 4 toilets in my home btw and swore as a child I would NOT be cleaning toilets one day, HA) The measure of a person is not in what they don't do in menial tasks as much as what they do do where it really counts. I have cleaned patients smelly bottoms smeared with feces, and trust me that is a lot worse than any toilet! I know of ONE (1) CEO personally... a cousin of mine. I found him as we grew up to be a funny and humorous person, with goals and plans and better grades than mine too! He was and is a kind man, a loving son and father and husband. He often uses himself as the butt of his own jokes and takes delight in "the family" setting him straight on how life really is lived; when he shares some event. As is true for everything in life including CEO's some people are very good kind and honest and some you're going to have to screw them into the ground to bury them they are that crooked! Most people and CEO's fall somewhere in the middle and not that, that is bad...it's just how life is! Chow

Bill's Spirit, I have worked in campgrounds for 7 years now. I dont want the job of cleaning the toilets, not because I think it is beneath me, but simply because I dont want to do it. I think that those people who do that job are better people than me, because they do that lowly task, do it well, and dont complain about doing it.

If more people who use that toilet would think about the person who had to clean it, and leave it like they found it, the job wouldn't be half as bad as it is.

I`ve always done what it takes.

There are far worse things than cleaning toilets at my house. Say washing dishes or folding laundry...

I don't think I would feel the same way about a public toilet though. People can be really gross.

LOL Many don't and many do As for me
I wouldn't let cleaning toilets stand in the way of me and my mercedes!

i'd rather have a different car, but i won't let that hang me up. It's not about cleaning toilets. it is about being willing to do things you dislike or are demeaning in order to make the world a better place. very few people of any socio-economic class are willing to do that. and only a small portion of those move from willingness to actions. and only a small portion of those do so on a regular basis. Heck, there are a lot of people who aren't even willing to do that for their own families!

I dislike generalizing on groups of people. For example, Ray Anderson is a CEO I admire. He is making real changes towards sustainability in his company. I don't know if he would clean toilets, but he is making the world a better place.

having said that ... I wouldn't scrub toilets to get a fancy car. I would to support my family. I probably would to make someones life better.

I have known many CEO's and the ones most respected by their employees are the ones I could see cleaning toilet if they found it dirty. You cuild a successful business by being willing to do whatever job needs done when it needs to be done.

Pretty funny, Bill. Like the article.

I went to a dinner party last week, and we ended up talking about excrement at the end of the meal and laughing hilariously, but then I live in Portland. We are pretty down to earth here. I am reminded of the story of the tai chi master tormented by a postulant about where God is: Is He here? Is He there? In exasperation, the master stormed, "God is in excrement!" It is satisfying to clean things up. I am pretty sure I have told this story before on Gather, but maybe to a different crew? If the Mercedes would burn bio-diesel, I would take it.