If you don't already know, Romney pulls in millions upon millions each year from Bain, even though he does absolutely nothing. Via the New York Times:
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The family’s Bain holdings are still considerable: in his 2011 disclosure, Mr. Romney reported Bain assets between $12.4 million and $60.9 million, which provided between $1.5 million and $9.3 million in income. The blind trust for his wife, Ann, held at least another $10 million, generating income of at least $4.1 million. Because the campaign is required to provide only a minimum value for some Bain assets now held by Mrs. Romney, the total could be far more.
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This man did nothing to earn that money in 10 years. The funny thing to me, of course, is that Romney has argued vigorously over the last few days that did nothing to earn that money for 13 years. And this is where the real disgusting news comes, not just about Romney but about where conservative public policy ultimately takes us.
While many argue we shouldn't begrudge Romney for his wealth, and perhaps on a personal level they are right, there is something terribly wrong with an economic system where doing nothing can ever earn you enough every year to buy an island. And it bellies the lie that so many conservative voters truly believe: People can all get rich if they just work hard enough.
Romney, of course, never did work hard in order to get rich. He was born to a successful businessman and politician, and then he made a career out of leveraging assets to make more money. Did that require some tenaciousness and "creative destruction?" I suppose, but it's not as much work as it takes to move bricks from one end of a construction yard to the other.
Don't get me wrong. I personally have never traded in what anyone might call "hard work." I'm a writer, and carrying my laptop with me is the closest I do to heavy lifting. But I do work hard, just as doctors, teachers, electricians and plenty of other professionals who will never get Romney-type money do. Sadly, it seems the closer you get to doing genuine hard work, the less likely it is that you will get rich doing it.
Somehow, conservatives have managed to get huge numbers of hard-working people to ignore that folks like Mitt Romney make millions each year just watching their portfolios grow. Instead, these rank-and-file Republicans get angry that there are drunks getting welfare money from the government. Honestly, when you consider how little the "welfare queens" of the world actually pull in, it's stunning people consider them worth an ounce of outrage at all.
To put it another way, Republican leadership of today wants you angry that a retired firefighter could earn more than $100,000 a year in pensions just because he spent his healthiest years running into burning buildings to save children from certain death, but then say Mitt Romney should be admired for pulling in $20 million a year because he once ran a company that bought and dismantled other companies in order to further the bottom line for investors.
It really doesn't matter much whether Mitt Romney was calling shots at Bain in mid-2001 or if he had an underling do it. Sure, he was just caught in a big fat lie, but anyone who minds voting for a liar probably left the Romney bus a long time ago.
But that Romney assures us today that he has done nothing with Bain for more than a decade but he still rakes in millions each year from Bain, that's a sign of why our economy is so terribly broken, and why this is not the man who will fix it.
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This man did nothing to earn that money in 10 years. The funny thing to me, of course, is that Romney has argued vigorously over the last few days that did nothing to earn that money for 13 years. And this is where the real disgusting news comes, not just about Romney but about where conservative public policy ultimately takes us.
While many argue we shouldn't begrudge Romney for his wealth, and perhaps on a personal level they are right, there is something terribly wrong with an economic system where doing nothing can ever earn you enough every year to buy an island. And it bellies the lie that so many conservative voters truly believe: People can all get rich if they just work hard enough.
Romney, of course, never did work hard in order to get rich. He was born to a successful businessman and politician, and then he made a career out of leveraging assets to make more money. Did that require some tenaciousness and "creative destruction?" I suppose, but it's not as much work as it takes to move bricks from one end of a construction yard to the other.
Don't get me wrong. I personally have never traded in what anyone might call "hard work." I'm a writer, and carrying my laptop with me is the closest I do to heavy lifting. But I do work hard, just as doctors, teachers, electricians and plenty of other professionals who will never get Romney-type money do. Sadly, it seems the closer you get to doing genuine hard work, the less likely it is that you will get rich doing it.
Somehow, conservatives have managed to get huge numbers of hard-working people to ignore that folks like Mitt Romney make millions each year just watching their portfolios grow. Instead, these rank-and-file Republicans get angry that there are drunks getting welfare money from the government. Honestly, when you consider how little the "welfare queens" of the world actually pull in, it's stunning people consider them worth an ounce of outrage at all.
To put it another way, Republican leadership of today wants you angry that a retired firefighter could earn more than $100,000 a year in pensions just because he spent his healthiest years running into burning buildings to save children from certain death, but then say Mitt Romney should be admired for pulling in $20 million a year because he once ran a company that bought and dismantled other companies in order to further the bottom line for investors.
It really doesn't matter much whether Mitt Romney was calling shots at Bain in mid-2001 or if he had an underling do it. Sure, he was just caught in a big fat lie, but anyone who minds voting for a liar probably left the Romney bus a long time ago.
But that Romney assures us today that he has done nothing with Bain for more than a decade but he still rakes in millions each year from Bain, that's a sign of why our economy is so terribly broken, and why this is not the man who will fix it.
Jake it seems you're not arguing against the principles of how Mitt gets his cash but against the number of zeros involved. We both worked hard to achieve positions that don't involve moving "bricks from one end of a construction yard to the other." does that mean we do less "genuine hard work" than the guy with the bricks? We both have devoted parents that worked to make sure their kids prospered and have given us much in both material support and more importantly work ethic/financial wisdom. Should their committment be maxed out at a certain dollar value? As for doing nothing and making money off of it; I put money in the market toward that very purpose every paycheck and advise anyone listening to do the same. As for the "welfare queens". Most rank-and-file Repubs(and a few fuzzy libertarians) are outraged not by the amount they draw in but that how their own choices landed them in the social safety net set up for those who can't take care of themselves. I beleive we are our brothers keepers but forgive my frustration with those unwilling to try hard work in favor of a victim mentality and a hand out. Either of us could be in need of that hand out had we not chosen to buy the things we can afford rather than the things we want but we used the 3 braincells God gave us and here we are. Ours is an economic system that isn't fair, it's economic natural selection at times but I don't see us jumping ship for the alternatives(it's just the opposite). While I'm no fan of Mitt his money is the result of many of the same factors that have blessed our lives albeit with fewer zeros. Now for those voters who do mind voting for liars, after you jump off the Romney bus just let the Obama bus drive by(they black out the windows going down memory lane in Chicago). Let's write in Jacob Ogles(closet neocon) for prez, use those 3 braincells to take care of ourselves and all quit complaining for a second and all will be well. -Brandon
ReplyDeleteHey, Jake- this is all so theoretical, when our Florida voting lists are being purged by Republicans trying to steal the state in the election. Do you remember anything from those articles you used to write on kicking out voters?
ReplyDeleteThis has all happened before. It will happen again.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.wired.com/politics/security/news/2004/06/63781?currentPage=all
Brandon, I respect the philosophical perspective on welfare, but the biggest problem in our economy today is the poor distribution of wealth. We have an economic system that diverts far too many of our dollars into the accounts of those who literally cant figure out how to spend that much. The fact that at a moment when this is the great issue of our day is the precise moment when the Republican Party has nominated Mitt Romney as its nominee for president shows exactly what the chief agenda of that party is. If you have a problem with the "welfare queens" because of the choices they made, I respect that, but I have a huge problem that there is even a path where the choices Mitt Romney made, or the choices his father made, can land him today in a spot where he does not have to work another day in his life in order to pull in millions more than people breaking their backs just to get a little food on their children's table. It is a far greater outrage to me that Mitt Romney can sit on his butt all day forever and make millions in Bain checks teach year than it does that some Joe Sixpack who made poor choices in life can get a WIC card that gives him thousands of dollars each year. And it takes a whole lot of those Joe Sixpacks to equal one Mitt Romney.
ReplyDelete