[nickff]

Should the president of the USA be held responsible for some department of the US government ruining a citizen's life (which happens all the time)? What about a state governor, should they be responsible for all the state's agencies? How about a mayor whose police force or other department acts poorly?

[KerrAvon]

I can't tell if this is sarcasm, so I will answer without sarcasm:

Yes, they should be held responsible (for some value of "responsible"). It is ultimately their responsibility, which goes along with the power they wield. It's what they signed up for. And this doesn't absolve the people who directly caused the issue. You want leadership to focus on ensuring that their delegates are competent and not corrupt.

There are some shades of gray here, of course. In the US, these leadership positions don't have absolute power. It isn't necessarily their *fault*. But it is absolutely their *responsibility*.

[tcmart14]

Yes and no. Responsibility should be held accountable to the level that it should. Would I paint a broad brush and say specifically the CEO? No. Sometimes the really bad decision happens at a departmental level or maybe it is the CTO and it never got to the CEO, the accountability needs to be there. When it is because of the CEO, then yes. The same rather happens in government. Government employees loose their job or can be removed from positions. In some cases, those government employees have gone to jail.

The only reason why we haven't had a president go to jail for crimes committed, at least for one congress has pursued is that the Presidents who were for sure to be removed (Nixon), resigned and was pardoned.

[chickenpotpie]

If the president of the United States is knowingly making a profit from the actions of a government employee and they do not interfer, then yes they should go to jail. The line is murkier when someone is just doing a bad job, but if someone is knowingly making money from illegal behavior they can easily put a stop to they should go to prison.

[Dracophoenix]

> If the president of the United States is knowingly making a profit from the actions of a government employee and they do not interfer, then yes they should go to jail.

This would be a great argument for abolishing the IRS.

[mrguyorama]

No it isn't. Taxes don't go into the president's pocket.

[avgDev]

Of course they should. If a cop makes a dumb move and the city gets sued then mayor should not be held accountable. However, if the mayor ignores police corruption, then I would love them to serve a prison sentence. They have the power, they must use it.

President should be responsible for things he can change, in US a president doesn't really have power to change everything as there are other parts of the government which are involved in decision making.

Any person in a position of power who can CHANGE policies or remove people and doesn't do so, which leads to further incidents and corruption that affect the population should be held accountable.

This will never happen, as powerful people don't want this.