It has become fashionable to demonize ‘‘Bain’’ as some sort of monster of greed. Even the president and his followers would have us believe that Bain and its one-time leader, Mitt Romney, care only about profits, never people. We are told that Bain delights in seizing weak companies, firing their staffs, amassing amoral fortunes, and fleecing decent working folk.
That certainly doesn’t sound like a very compassionate business, much less the sort to produce someone we would want as our next president. But are these attacks true?
Comments
I do not "bash" Bain or Romney over their business practices. I believe a lot of the underlying intent of the political mud slinging from both sides of this race. However, when Mitt comes out and claims he can create jobs here in the USA (which, lets face it, is not the preferred business model of many companies these days when labor in China is pratically slave labor), I become very skeptical. Government does not "create" jobs. Government can only create conditions that are favorable for private industry to create jobs. The most typical kinds of jobs being offered for many working people are low paying service sector jobs that don't allow them to climb the ladder of economic opportunity. Many of us understand that it was not Bain's mission to create jobs, but rather to create wealth for their own investors. If in the process of doing that (and process is really Mitt's forte and strong quality) people get hurt. What bothers many of us is that Mitt's naked ambition allows no empathy for those he has hurt over the course of his career making money for investors. It proves a decidedly cold, calculatiing, process obsessed course of action will yield profits for those on your side of the fence. How does experience translate into helping millions of people get back to work? The corporate entities we are talking about are not interested in creating jobs in this country. It is too expensive for them to suppor the "American" way of life and the higher standard of living we have come to expect in this country. Maybe that is why Mitt considers 47% of us to be "leeches" just Ayn Rand alluded to in the book that both Mitt and Paul Ryan ascribe their philosophy too.
"The plain truth is that Bain is in the business of creating value for its clients, including shareowners, employees, customers, suppliers, and their communities."
READ: Bain is in the business of making money.
"Bain would not belong to this eminent club if it were offering shoddy, self-serving and duplicitous advice."
COMMENT: No one has ever suggested that Bain's advice was shoddy-self serving or duplicitous. Just that they were, in many cases, vultures.
Actually, this article is in direct conflict with the article by David Stockman in the October 14 issue of Newsweek. Stockman's article isn't a brief opinion piece with no supporting evidence, like this one, but several pages crammed with facts and figures.
http://www.thedailybeast.com/newsweek/2012/10/14/david-stockman-mitt-romney-and-the-bain-drain.html
I suppose if you are of the rarified group benefiting from Bain's prowess, you would have the same opinion as the author. Unfortunately for these pro-Romney types, there's more to our society than wrath building for white straight golfers who, with their botoxed wives jet set around and try to tell the rest of us how to live.