The problem for a president and a Cabinet lacking business experience is that they don't understand what the private sector is all about.

President Obama believes its purpose is to "create jobs." The folks out in nongovernment America believe the goal is to make money.

If jobs are created, fine. If jobs are eliminated, so be it. It's the money that matters.

The president, despite being a multi-millionaire himself, once said "at a certain point, you've made enough money." He does not understand that for the men and women in the shrinking American capitalist class, there is no such thing as enough.

It's a lamentable part of the human condition, perhaps, but it's not something the president can change.

Obama might want to create a new human nature in which "public service" (i.e. government employment) is more appealing than seeking profit, but he has so far only been able to exploit human nature, not change it.

With public employees widely out-earning their private-sector counterparts, Obama has attracted 100,000 more people into government employ, but he has not altered the motivations of humankind.

The new generation of Obama bureaucrats would happily leave their posts as diversity facilitators and compliance enforcement agents if the private sector could offer them the kind of money, security and benefits that taxpayers are currently compelled to underwrite.

And the way things are going, that kind of private-sector resurgence is a distant hope.

In the process of trying to nudge Americans into more high-minded pursuits, Obama has managed to scare the bejeebers out of the capitalists.

The trillions of dollars sitting on the economic sidelines reflect the uncertainties created by the president and his party. Many analysts say that this is a reflection of business displeasure with Obama. It is more importantly a reflection of the profit motive.

The members of America's productive class would much rather profit from policies with which they disagree than lose money under policies they think are admirable. Again, it's all about the money.

The president now recognizes how this regulatory uncertainty is stifling the economy and how that will smother Democratic hopes for mitigating this fall's electoral disaster.

He now likes to say that he is "pro-growth," but people don't seem to believe him. Some 55 percent of voters in a new Democratic poll described Obama as a "socialist".

Even the business leaders who previously accepted Obama's economic model, like the CEOs of the Business Roundtable, have begun to cry out.

Obama had persuaded them that they would make big profits from their favored status in a centrally planned economy. But now they realize Big Brother is clueless and fear another dip into deep recession.

The administration has responded with a new commission, of course. The commission's job is to suss out the regulations that capitalists think are most injurious and then make recommendations about which ones might be eased.

But much of the problem is with regulations that have yet to be imposed, particularly the rules embedded in the president's national health care program. Also worrisome are the new taxes that are sure to be imposed after the fall elections.

What's a capitalist to do, fill out a White House form to say he is experiencing free-floating dread? Ask if Obamacare will cover Xanax?

White House economic adviser Jared Bernstein explained why the government wants to hear from business: "Ultimately, it's the purview of the private sector to create the job growth that's going to lift us."

Actually, the "purview of the private sector" relates to profits, not jobs. Jobs are a side effect of people seeking profits, not an end unto themselves.

But the only Cabinet-level member of the Obama administration to have any business experience is Rahm Emanuel, who relied on political connections in a brief time as an investment banker.

A half-dozen Cabinet members worked as lawyers, but that's cleaning up after capitalists, not creating new wealth. Energy Secretary Steven Chu was a researcher for Bell Labs and Education Secretary Arne Duncan played semi-pro basketball in Australia -- not exactly Henry Clay Frick and Andrew Carnegie.

Everything else on Team Obama's collective resume is in academia, government and politics.

Obama has worked in jobs and even "made a payroll," using money provided by taxpayers or donors. But he's never had to build a better mousetrap to create wealth and profits.

That inexperience contributed to Obama's misunderstanding of the purpose of the private sector.

As capitalists bet against recovery by sitting on the economic sidelines and corporate America turns away from the president and his party, Obama is getting a belated trip to business school.

Chris Stirewalt is the political editor of The Washington Examiner. He can be reached at cstirewalt@washingtonexaminer.com