Posted on 01/11/2012 4:51:32 AM PST by Cincinatus' Wife
Many have suggested that attacks on Mitt Romney's service at Bain Capital are attacks on capitalism itself. That is hyperbole at its finest from those who do not understand the business Bain Capital was involved in.
Mitt Romney was NOT primarily a venture capitalist. A venture capitalist invests in early-stage businesses with the hope that they grow and prosper. These early-stage businesses are often risky investments. Though most ultimately fail, some succeed spectacularly making the risks worthwhile. Apple Computer and Google are two such examples. This is what Mitt Romney means when he says some investments succeed and some fail.
By contrast, Mitt Romney was primarily what is affectionately known as a vulture investor........
The two core arguments for Mitt Romney's candidacy are (1) that he knows how to create jobs and (2) that he stands a better chance of defeating Barack Obama than his competitors. Is it true that a slash and burn vulture investor is the best advocate for job creation? If you were a factory worker in Ohio or Pennsylvania or the upper Midwest and Mitt Romney killed your job because there was a more efficient use of the capital employed in your factory, are you really going to listen to what Mitt Romney has to say even if you believe in hard work and free market capitalism?
No one is suggesting that Mitt Romney was evil or immoral or corrupt or criminal. If Mitt Romney had founded a business that did not rely on firing thousands of people as part of its business model, this issue would never have come up. Given that the focus of this election needs to be squarely on Barack Obama and his Marxist rhetoric and policies, it is paramount that Republicans not nominate a candidate that detracts from that.
(Excerpt) Read more at americanthinker.com ...
Mitt Romney did not create companies, he disassembled them.
Please don't be confused. Mitt Romney was not a venture capitalist. He was an animal of a different breed entirely.
Obama and his minions will make a meal of him, that's for sure. They won't go after him in generalities, either. They will dig up the very real specifics of the wreckage he left in his wake. By the time they are finished, Ann Romney wouldn't vote for the man.
The company's value was $30 million in assets. Bain got a $180 million loan on the assets then raided them leaving the company to pay back the $180 million. It bankrupted. Get it?
Comrade.
Another one who believes the misdirection that this is about capitalism as opposed to it REALLY being about Romney's ethics. Some of you people are so easily manipulated.
Have a nice day.
I am no Romney supporter...inj fact I am a Perry supporter, but I hate Perry going after Romney on Bain, as well as Newt and Santorum... they are attacking capitalism using the language of the left. There are plenty of ways to go after Romney, but this is not one of them.
Bain (and many other VC firms) specialized in rescuing failing companies. There are many good businesses out there that for one reason or another (be it market conditions, mismanagement, whatever) become distressed businesses. They are going down regardless of what happens and all of their employees will lose their jobs. Bain would come in and infuse them with capital and restructure them. those with good business models survived and folks kept their jobs and Bain made money. Those that were too far gone or did not have a good business model or product/services to offer ended up failing, so they were shut down and liquidated.
Bain was not a corporate raider, swooping in to buy prosperous businesses, then fire all employees and loot the company coffers. They made their money rescuing failing businesses and recouped their investment on those they could not fix by liquidating. Its as simple as that.
You’re joking with all of us Perry people, right?
We who back a candidate who is as anti Federal Government as it gets, not just in rhetoric but in actions...
If we don’t want Mitt Romney as the face of our Party, in part because of what he chose to specialize in, instead of specializing in creating jobs for the actual workers, somehow we are for the Federal Government?
That’s why I have concluded you are joking.
If not, then bizarro world just invaded us.
He is not electable because he did not do anything wrong? The author is attacking free markets. They are not hard to defend if you believe in freedom over central planning. You sound like you are saying, “Mitt Romney is unelectable because he worked and profited in the free market and how are we going to be able to explain such action to America?”
I commend to you Milton Friedman’s “Free to Choose” for starters. Brush up, you are going to need it.
You really haven’t grasped yet what this is all about.
I’m sure the Dems have it figured out, and if we are unlucky or stupid enough to wind up with Romney as the nominee, you can bank on Obama being reelected with a virtual 50 state sweep. But the time the Dems have laid out the entire Bain story including photographs of the corpses, his own kids wouldn’t vote for the man.
BTW, don’t think for a minute that Bain “risked” $30 million. Never happened. Bain was not a risk taker, Bain was merely a taker.
Wow, you just stated that Mitt Romney’s purpose as a private citizen should have been “specializing in creating jobs for the actual workers....” If that is your understanding of free markets and you claim to be “conservative”, we are in trouble.
No man has an obligation to create jobs. He has an obligation to follow the laws and to enter only into voluntary transactions with others. No man should be compelled to do anything with his time, talent, or money that he does not want to do. Otherwise, why don’t you create a job for my young daughter ... chop, chop.
No matter my politics or yours, THIS STATEMENT IS A LIE . And the fact that you thought it necessary to say it is evidence that the writer knows it is a lie.
Wow, you uncovered heretofore unknown facts that reveal Romney to be a felon. Where is your proof Comrade?
You don’t have any. You are operating out of envy. Romney made money and you didn’t. Shouldn’t you be “occupying Wall Street”?
Bain took money from taxpayers. That was bailout before it was called bailouts. They took the taxpayer money, laid people off, gave their “investors” money and didn’t pay back the taxpayers. That’s not capitalism, that’s socilism.
What makes you think I am not intimately familiar with Friedman?
And I am not attacking free markets. I make my living in free markets. That’s not what this is about.
This is about a type of predatory operation that can and will be laid out by the Obama minions in a way that will make Romney look worse than the caricature of the mustachioed evil banker foreclosing on the homesteads of good people. This will be very effective because it will be true, or at least 90% true. It is bad enough that it will make Romney unelectable.
Yes, they "get it", but their Alinsky methods are in full play.
Crony communism masquerading as capitalism was the "bane" of the 80s and 90s.
The misdirection on what this is about has worked on some light thinkers but, thank goodness, not everyone.
“Mitt Romney did not create companies, he disassembled them.”
So what? Certainly he would have “created companies” if it would have been more profitable. Did he force another party to enter into a transaction? If not, what is your problem?
What wreckage was “left in his wake”? The utopia you dream of where nobody gets fired is known as the US Post Office, Amtrack, and the other federal bureaucracies that rely on extracting money by force from citizens.
Raybob, it it were as simple as that, I don't think there would be any controversy at all. I think that the facts, as they come out, will show that it was anything but "as simple as that". And as always the devil is in the details, and it will be in the details, the specifics of what was actually done by Bain in certain cases that will be the downfall of Mitt Romney.
From my perspective I'd rather see these issues opened up and aired out BEFORE we commit to him as the nominee.
Bump! to your post #46
Romneycare
TARP
bailouts
taking over GM as a good idea
Obama’s $trillion stimulus package
mandates
Yup. That Romney is a stellar capitalist!
Man, you are dense. I have NO problem with legal freely entered transactions. That is not what this is about. I have no problem with people getting laid off, either. It happens; so what?
You simply refuse to understand that this will poison the electorate against the man.
JV, please note that this poster accused us of being for the Federal Gov’t bailout approach if we had a problem with Romney’s Bain Capital.
How do you plead to that, as a supporter of Rick Perry?
And does that not give you pause in your efforts to try convincing this poster of ANYTHING?
Bain “took money from taxpayers”? How so? Bain did not have the power to “take money from taxpayers”. Bain was a private company that entered into voluntary transactions with other parties. It sounds like your beef is with the federal government and its propensity to extract time, talent, and money from citizens.
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