Poor Mitt. The hits keep on coming. Most recently, the brilliant Stephen Colbert took Mitt’s absurd “corporations are people” to its natural absurd conclusion by pointing out that if corporations are people, and Mitt dismembered some corporations, then Mitt is a serial killer. Brilliant!!!!!
The problem comes from Mitt’s time at the helm of Bain Capital. It is somewhat amusing to watch, as the other contenders in the Republican Party try to appeal to the 99%, while the Party proper screams that “capitalism” must be defended. The cannibalism is wonderful theater.
According to accusations, Mitt’s time at Bain is likely littered with examples of what is now being called “vulture capitalism”. A professor at NYU’s school of law explained the accusations…
The question is whether or not Mitt did this. I think he likely did, at least some. The problem is that capitalism is an inherently flawed system. This is why regulation exists. Capitalism is neither moral, nor immoral. It simple does what makes money. Human sex trafficking makes someone money, but we consider that activity abhorrent, so we discourage it through legal restrictions. We regulate because it prevents the worst of capitalism, but the drum that is heard lately is that there is too much regulation. We recently reduced regulations, and people let greed run amok and the recent financial meltdown was the result.
And more often than not, the people at the top rarely feel the result of their decisions. Consider Psycho Jeff, who threatened me a few weeks ago. He is a real estate developer who left a company he founded, Monument Realty, to take over a struggling Advantis. This was in August of 2008. In July of 2009, the company had gone down like the Hindenburg, in part because of “an aggressive expansion plan by a majority owner.” Nevertheless, despite running one company into the ground, after leaving another just before their relationship with Lehman Brothers collapsed them (coincidental that).
But then later this year, Jeff sold his condo for a slight profit of over 2 million dollars.
The reason I explain all of this, is that when Jeff’s company, Advantis, collapsed because of his overreach and greed, his employees not only lost their jobs, but had to sue to get back pay for work they had already done. This is someone who led two companies into the ground (the one without him survived), and sold their home for over 2 million, being sued for hundreds.
Capitalism allowed this to happen, and because the worst characteristics of some individuals were allowed to operate without impediment. And when these bubbles burst, when the companies are dismembered with a scalpel and sold off, and when vulture capitalism is allowed to run without regulation, it is not the people at the helm who suffer. It is others who will pay for the bailouts, who will sue for $500, who will lose their homes to foreclosure, and all of the other negative problems that we see everyday.
So whether or not Mitt actually participated in vulture capitalism, we need to use this as a vehicle to really discuss what kind of society we want. We should discuss why greed has a place, and motivation to improve is not a negative, but there should be reason applied to the calculus. Sweden has a very equitable income distribution, while the US is looking more like Mexico everyday. This is a conversation we, as the 99%, need to have.
