Republicans have championed Mitt Romney's record as a Wall Street buyout specialist as head of the private equity firm Bain Capital this week, celebrating the investment company as an example of Romney's financial acumen and ingenuity. However, Romney has consistently sought to distance himself from at least one controversial aspect of Bain Capital's record: sending American jobs overseas.
As The Washington Post reported in June, Bain Capital "invested in a series of firms that specialized in relocating jobs done by American workers to new facilities in low-wage countries like China and India." Those investments would seem to undermine Romney's public statements as a presidential candidate about offshoring. “For me it’s all about good jobs for the American people and a bright and prosperous future,” Romney said in June.
A former partner of Romney's at Bain Capital, however, hasn't been nearly as skittish about the firm's record of relocating jobs overseas as Romney has. In a book published earlier this year, Ed Conard, who served as a partner at Bain Capital from 1993 to 2007, extolled the virtues of inexpensive offshore labor:
Let's not kid ourselves about just how cheap offshore labor really is. We not only pay substantially less per hour, we also avoid the costs we would incur if these workers immigrated here. We don't pay for their medical expenses when they show up in the emergency room without insurance. We don't pay for their pension costs if they don't save for retirement. We don't pay for their children's public education. Nor do we pay for their out-of-wedlock children, their unemployment benefits and workers' compensation, their slip and fall torts, their wear and tear on our public infrastructure, and the cost of their drunk driving, drug use and other crimes. We outsource pollution, its adverse effects on our health, and its clean-up costs. Neither the employees nor their employers are here to vote and seek political handouts.
In an exclusive interview with Up w/ Chris Hayes in July, Conard predicted that Romney, too, would eventually embrace the entirety of Bain Capital's record once the campaign intensifies in the fall, and said he did not think Romney was "ashamed" of any of the work he did at Bain Capital. “You say ashamed, I see great pride,” Conard said. “When the debate really starts, in August, September and October, we’ll see. I think he’ll own it.”
Sal Gentile (@salgentile) is a segment & digital producer for Up w/ Chris Hayes.
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What are not taken into consideration in his calculus are the negative impact on those not directly benefiting from the profit derived from outsourcing. The money not spend on US jobs is demand taken out of the economy. It increases unemployment which triggers UE benefits, SNAP, etc. It helps create the non-working and minimum wage class in America and all the negative implications associated with these groups.
Also, if we are not having "their children" in our schools and paying "their medical expenses" and all the other costs associated with cheap, immigrant labor, then we should see a correlative decrease in our outlays in each area. There doesn't seem to be any correlation between outsourcing and saving money on these expenditures, which is probably due to the costs incurred by creating a larger lower class (see point one).
What really bothers me is the attitude of using other people and their homes as something that are nothing more than expendable resources that have value only in what we can extract from them. Get black lung? So. Next! Pollution so bad you can't see 100 yards down your street? Next time be born in a different country. The mentality that "better them than us" and "consequences be damned" is culturally arrogant and morally reprehensible.
....and flies in the face of e pluribus unum
For a time, working people in this country had some dignity and made wages that a family could live on while saving money. The attitude that is reflected by Conrad is that working people are a drag on society. We simply cost the ruling class bother and money. Now that unions have been demonized and corporations have circled their golden wagons around our governors, workers have no recourse. We need a separation of corporation and state. The influence that corporate money now has over policy in this nation is not producing an economy that is sustainable--not humanely and not environmentally. When will the overlords realize that if the masses have no money, there will be no commerce to drive their economy?
While conservatives lament that there are no jobs, they also rant about how liberals have constructed a "culture of dependence." At the same time they cry "We built that!", they proclaim that we live in a "culture of dependency." (Which is it?) I'm at a loss to determine how people with no jobs (which conservatives are using as a talking point) are to find the money to feed their families and keep roofs over their heads without help from the government, at times. In fact, I rarely hear mentioned that wages are so low in the U.S. that people who are employed often qualify and need food stamps. But somehow these people are supposed to build something, apparently with no help from the government, although Bain has benefited from friendly government subsidies and huge loans that it paid back at 30 cents on the dollar. (That's a bailout.) We are supposed to build some big business because that's the Republican party's dream, or we are accused of "hating success" or being lazy. But building an enterprise is not everybody's dream, nor should it be. Some people want to work hard and have security by investing their time in other realms besides business. Some people even want to work in government (say it isn't so!) because they understand that good government is about building strong communities that function and help keep their people healthy and productive. A society of healthy, happy people contributing to a diverse economy in a variety of capacities according to their interestes and skills is a strong country. That's my American dream. I'd like you to build that, Republicans.
Sure hope the Up team whispers about the Israeli court ruling that Israel is not responsible for crushing Rachel Corrie to death as she protested the bulldozing of Palestinian homes on Palestinian land. Hope you whisper about the ruling. Even Diane Rehm did on her international hour today about 30 minutes into the show. Miracles will never cease. Will Hayes whisper?
Also you folks should go read the Breaking the Silence report about IDF members admitting to human rights abuses against Palestinian children. Shackling, kicking, humiliating children. For anyone who has been paying attention to this issue for decades like myself this is not new news...but the fact that Israeli soldiers are finally coming out and admitting their horrendous crimes. Another case of miracles will never cease.
The story in the Wapo about the navy analyst Todd who allegedly exposed Cheney's plan to attack IRan sure disappeared quickly.
Also the pay to play Congressman naked trips to Israel sure disappeared after a week of the MSM being consumed by the naked part of the story.
No one has been able to explain to me how money in the Cayman Islands or money in a Swiss bank account is supposed to trickle down in America. Call me old fashioned but I like Henry Ford's business model not the Bain business model. If we got a Republican Tea Party economy, probably some day factory owners really could look out of their door at the road leading to their factory and say, "I built that."
The one thing new I learned from the Republican convention is that Ryan is willing to say anything they tell him to say. I already knew that Romney thinks that words become true after they come out of his mouth.
I do phone banking and door-to-door canvassing for Obama. You would be surprised how many older (white like myself) people say to me, concerning the Republican party's actions, "It's all because he's black, isn't it?"
1. Did the GOPs candidate’s parents pay for their college education? If so, how can they understand what it is like to try to pay for your own education? 2. The choices you make filing your taxes (what deductions you take, etc.) are a decision you make, why doesn't a presidential candidate have to explain the decisions he made in his life? The GOP is supposed to be the party of personal accountability. 3. The GOP tries to portray Obama as an angry black man. Is that not racist? 4. How much money did Romney make from investing in the company that was called pioneers of outsourcing and did that money end up in a Swiss or Caribbean bank? 5. Will he follow Israel into war with Iran? 6. Will the independent voters allow the Mitch McConnell led assault on bipartisanship work while the independent profess to believe that the parties should work together? 7. What do you need to do these days for the corporate media to call you a budget hawk? If you are a Republican, just come up with a plan to balance the budget by 2030, which is what COB says Ryan’s budget will do. 8. How long will people continue to call Bain Capital job creators, they had no interest in creating jobs: Their job is to take extremely wealthy people’s money and give them a huge return on their investment. 9. Will the increase in food prices the will be coming after this summer’s drought convince independents to vote republican (i.e. the party that wants more carbon in the atmosphere). We know that independents vote based on how their wallet looks at the moment (gas prices, grocery prices…push independents from one party to the other (they seem to stand for nothing other than their wallet). 10. I watched an debate between Sister Campbell (nun on bus) and a Paul Ryan supporter. The Ryan supporter was talking about people helping each other at the local level to solve poverty issues. How a person from a party that has pursued the southern strategy and divide and conquer politics for generations can say stuff like that is beyond my ability to understand. Also, if Jesus and the conservatives what people to solve poverty at the local level through private charity, what are the wealthy people waiting for? It is time to sell their worldly possessions and give the money to the poor. 11. Isn't the theme of the GOP convention (i.e. we build this) divisive? Apparently the GOP is saying while you people were out picking up your welfare (or other government aid) checks, we were building this. Independents apparently want politicians in Washington to work together. What do independents think about this? Are independents part of the "we" that build this or only republicans built it? By the way, Mitt Romney, unlike Bill Gates, Henry Ford, etc., didn't build anything other than the brand name for Bain, which means nothing unless you have a million dollars to give to Bain to invest. 12. Jesus said sell your stuff and give the money to the poor. Will Mitt sell half of his stuff and provide the money so the Secretary of State in Ohio can provide the same voting opportunities to northeast Ohio. Since Mitt “Believes in America” he will surely want northeastern Ohio to have the same extended voting.