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Tuesday, January 10, 2012

Corporations, firing people & venture capitalists

  I'm not in the business of defending Mitt Romney. He's not my pick, he's McCain wishy washy and he just doesn't seem to have the tiger mentality that's going to be needed to take on the current POTUS's Chicago machine.
  A few months ago, Dems were fired up because Romney said "corporations are people." This remark caused a tidal wave of clucking about a rich guy who couldn't tell the difference between the hard working citizen and the cold corporation. This argument revealed the basic difference in the way capitalists and unionists view business. 
  What, one might wonder, would the hard working unionists' pension be without the stock market, without successful business and CEOs who know how to make money?
  It was all piffle.
  However, the latest incident of Dems and a couple Republicans running around claiming Romney likes to fire people reveals the desperate hands being played.
  Here's what Romney said:
"I want individuals to have their own insurance. That means the insurance company will have an incentive to keep you healthy. It also means that if you don't like what they do, you can fire them," Romney said. "I like being able to fire people who provide services to me. You know, if someone doesn't give me the good service I need I want to say, 'You know, I'm going to go get someone else to provide that service to me.' So, that's one thing I would change."
  Personally I also want to be able to fire people who don't do what they're supposed to do. 
  If you could fire the Post Office, wouldn't you?
  Isn't that exactly what Americans have been doing by utilizing courier services, Fed Ex and UPS?
  The problem is you can't fire government workers, no matter what you do.
  Then you have the whole Bain Capital kerfuffle, with opponents claiming Romney helped shut down businesses:
Mr Romney claims to have created 100,000 jobs after takeovers of US companies including Sports Authority, Staples and Domino's. But an analysis by The Wall Street Journal found that 30 per cent of businesses that were managed by Bain during Mr Romney's term at the helm from 1984 to 1999 filed for bankruptcy, were shutdown or lost all funds invested in them. At the same time, Mr Romney made a fortune while handsome returns for investors came from a small number of companies.
  Of course, the whole point of Mr. Romney's job was to weed out the strong from the weak, help companies survive if they were viable and let the others die a peaceful death, something our government likes to do on the basis of union membership rather than viability. 
  While it's not a bad thing that the Republicans are getting this argument out because it helps Romney get on his game, it reveals the desperation of the candidates. It's also unfair, churlish and childish. 
  But then, that's politics.

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