Ed Conard, former Bain Capital Partner, talks about the attacks against Bain and his defense of offshore labor.
Offshoring American manufacturing jobs
Sun Jul 15, 2012 1:10 PM EDT
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When I first heard this quote, which I think Chris Hayes introduced as being "an eloquent defense of off-shoring," I was appalled. Is it okay to send a job overseas and not worry about the worker there having insurance or health care? Is it okay to spoil their environment because it will be people we don't know in places we don't have to see? The false choice Ed Conrad offers is to send the job overseas, or to bring someone from overseas here, but there is no consideration of simply letting the American who current has the job keep it. The benefit generously noted that "we" (presumably "society") will get is not having to spend money when the overseas worker gets hurt and has to go to the emergency room. What happens to the American worker, newly laid off and now without health care, when he or she gets sick?
Far from being "eloquent," it is a sick love-song to the death of a decent society, where middle-class workers can actually make a living wage, in a safe environment, with benefits and some sense of stability as long as the worker does a good job. What Ed Conrad promises is an unworkable system where a few get very rich, and everyone else, little by little, slips into poverty. Ed Conrad and Mitt Romney, and a handful of others (who are as lucky and as unconcerned about anyone outside of their immediate circle) have created a financial maelstrom that sweeps everything in its ever-growing path, and drags all of it down into their bank personal accounts. No one else will have anything worth having. Sadly, their twisted view of reality is already coming true. They have quite literally been strip-mining the middle-class for decades, and the sequence is probably now unstoppable. There was a class war – and they won.
Conrad = Conard
bank personal accounts = personal bank accounts
(Apologies for typos, probably more than I have just noted)
Conrad is simply being honest. From a unsentimental cost benefit analysis, growing numbers of US businesses haven't much use for US workers. They are simply uncompetitive with foreign labor or automated solutions.
The trouble is, these same companies have a great deal of use for US consumers, so much so that their companies would be severely impacted with substantial reduction of US consumer demand. The fact that workers and consumers are one in the same is not lost on people like Conrad, but this is a macro factor that is not measurable and is therefore disqualified from consideration in particular business decisions.
It is unfortunate, but it also must be noted that there is substantial political benefit for the 1% if the size of the middle class is reduced to minority status.
So there are two propositions to consider:
.
It is not in the interest of plutocrats to have a well educated middle class. An undereducated and impoverished populace is interested less in rights than immediate needs for shelter and food. Lack of exposure to critical thinking allows them to be more easily swayed by propaganda from media outlets.
This discussion points out what is really sick about the kind or corporate mindset that drives companies like Mitt Romney's Bain. These companies are happy to reap the financial benefits of cheap foreign made goods, which they can then mark up with exorbitant costs to the American consumer. They could care less about the raping and pillaging of the populations in another country where these cheap goods were manufactured. The financial benefits all accrue to the corporate outsourcer and and the real costs of this practice are shifted and become some other country's problem. This is an illustration of the height of capitalist greed and this corporate practice is polluting much of the planet and destroying it's less fortunate populations.
The view from Mitt Romney's "America Street" (video)
Only somewhat related; Offshore bank accounts.
The reason so many large investors are using offshore banks, is to prevent economic recovery. When money is in an American bank, it is available for loans. Loans cause investments, investments create jobs. But, money in a foreign bank is not used in the US, and therefore won't help in the recovery. By putting money in foreign banks, Romney has revealed his motive, to not help Americans.
Chris Walker/ small town philosopher
Dear Chris,
Just watched all of the videos involving Ed Conard and also listened to your entire interview on Citizen Radio.
You mentioned that you take viewer response seriously and many viewers did not like your interaction with Ed Conard.
I am one viewer who applauds your effort to maintain a civil conversation. His tax returns and documented Bain position, post-1999 are interesting but primarily a distraction. Instead of hammering away at Ed about small politics you actually began to scratch the surface of a much more important topic; namely off-shoring.
Excellent work. Please don't be influenced by frothing ideologues. Having Ed on your show and encouraging an fruitful conversation was a rare and encouraging moment of TV.
Cheers,
A rational liberal.