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05-15-2012, 07:03 AM   #1
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Romney and the 1% will "take it all"

A new ad from a Superpac notes the Bain capital record and ends with the claim that if Romney is elected, then like Bain, he will "take it all" and leave workers with nothing. Heads or Tails - YouTube Whether the company fails or thrives, they make money either way.

Aside from the ad, it strikes me that the Hedge Fund and the Raider really have changed the way many view capitalism, and the disconnect with the 1%. The impression of big business has gone from the rising tide which lifts all boats (to varying degrees) to "they make money either way."

05-16-2012, 08:45 AM   #2
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As far as the rising tide lifing all boats, a barn yard analogy seems more apt. Feed the horses oats and the chickens get to peck through the shit for passed through goodies....
05-16-2012, 11:05 AM   #3
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QuoteOriginally posted by grhazelton Quote
As far as the rising tide lifing all boats, a barn yard analogy seems more apt. Feed the horses oats and the chickens get to peck through the shit for passed through goodies....
That may be, but the GOP assessment that the 99% is driven by envy is way off. I think most Americans are fine with the business owners getting much more, so long as it is perceived that we are all on the same team and our fortunes rise and fall together.
05-16-2012, 01:24 PM   #4
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I was just musing on a change in Republican talk over the past few years. Remember when they were pushing local democracy: the best way to deal with many issues was within towns and counties? Now, that may have been partly small-town-America marketing, and partly calculation by social conservatives as to where their best leverage was... Now thanks to Fox and radio, the social conservatives feel able to push their agendas on a state and national level.

Also, the towns and counties are where austerity hits the road... many have been going into debt, relying on the stimulus to keep some teachers and cops on payrolls... and are hit hard by the real estate bust. The Republican assesment is to a) cut services b) privatize what remains and c) bust public service unions in order to get rid of those pesky health and retirement benefits. This isn't playing so well locally.

05-17-2012, 02:00 PM   #5
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Let's simply overlook the fact that the company you are siting had 4 mills when Bain came in and the decision to close the mill in Kansas City allowed the other 3 mills to continue to operate to this day. Would it have been better to keep it open and put all 4 mills at risk of closing? Businesses make these kinds of decisions every day does that mean that every business should be forced to keep every plant and job forever regardless of the economic impact to the company ? Just curious
05-17-2012, 02:11 PM   #6
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Those decisions when made under normal business circumstances do make sense. However when venture/vulture capitalists take over a company, they seek to bring rapid and large returns to investors (including themselves). This often means accelerated decisions with considerations other than 'get customers' and 'retain existing customers' and 'sell more stuff' at the forefront. Once done, the capitalists involved have little interest in the long term viability of the company, as they made their goals already.

In this meta-corporate environment, (target) corporations exist in order to provide the raw materials and bulk required by the (acquiring) corporations to do their thing. Again, this is not a bad thing when done within reason.

But just like with the mortgage mess, things do not stay within reason for long. If I were running Bain and had a good year doing good vulture work - i.e. with companies that really did need it - I reported great earnings and pocketed some nice money myself. But now it's the next year, and I have to do more of this in order to demonstrate 'growth' - and I have to do it on a larger scale (as doing more and more small companies no longer is economically feasible for my now larger outfit)... So it is in my (and Bain's) interest to become less selective, more predatory, and to think bigger - and probably more fiercely. A shark has to stay in motion.
05-17-2012, 03:02 PM   #7
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QuoteOriginally posted by gokenin Quote
Let's simply overlook the fact that the company you are siting had 4 mills when Bain came in and the decision to close the mill in Kansas City allowed the other 3 mills to continue to operate to this day. Would it have been better to keep it open and put all 4 mills at risk of closing? Businesses make these kinds of decisions every day does that mean that every business should be forced to keep every plant and job forever regardless of the economic impact to the company ? Just curious
The unspoken consideration is often profit vs PROFIT.. In a perfect world of people being concerned for their country and citizens they would keep all 4 open as long as the net was positive...but they close it so the net is POSITIVE..eliminating supply drives prices up...

Closing net negative plants always make sense.. yet ALSO in a perfect world could be kept alive if the "group" netted positive....

Of course few will tell you when a plant is closed because it is only profitable not PROFITABLE.. if you get my drift..

AMORAL.. period.. couldn't care less about the country actually, except if it benefits them.. Certainly they don't want to "share the pain"...........

GOTTA love-em....

05-21-2012, 08:52 AM   #8
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QuoteOriginally posted by gokenin Quote
Let's simply overlook the fact that the company you are siting had 4 mills when Bain came in and the decision to close the mill in Kansas City allowed the other 3 mills to continue to operate to this day. Would it have been better to keep it open and put all 4 mills at risk of closing? Businesses make these kinds of decisions every day does that mean that every business should be forced to keep every plant and job forever regardless of the economic impact to the company ? Just curious
Not sure who the "you" is that may be citing to something, but my point was just that the ad explains out how the fortunes of the super-rich and everyone else are no longer tightly linked, and that is more the problem with the 99%-1% rather than envy, as Romney likes to say. It is not at all clear that Bain saved other mills by what they did to the ones in Kansas and South Carolina. They saddled them with debt, got their money out of it, and left them weakened to face competition. http://graphics.thomsonreuters.com/11/12/Kansas_City_Steel.pdf Then, though bankruptcy, they got the U.S. government to take on the pensions.

The pros and cons of any one example may have many facets, but the operations of Bain capital could not more squarely put the Occupy debate before the American people. The disconnect between Wall Street and Main Street is exemplified in these transactions where the rich make huge profits and the taxpayers and workers lose.
05-21-2012, 09:12 AM   #9
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Have to place this somewhere else.. When people made sense, sort of....


QuoteQuote:
Hill’s last major act was to help President Wilson arrange the Anglo-French loan of 1915 to assist the hard-pressed English and French. Hill insisted that none of the money could be used to buy munitions. The money must be spent to buy food, clothing, and provisions and that no sales commissions be paid to the bankers beyond an underwriting fee. Amounts subscribed outside New York must be left in the local banks until the goods were paid for locally. Even so, Hill took substantial flack from Minnesotans of German ancestry but he served his country well.
NOW THAT is in short supply in the current crop of "industrialists"... Hats off to Hill.......... thanks for bringing this to my attention...
One heck of a Democrat...
J.J. HILL PAGE
https://www.pentaxforums.com/forums/political-religious-discussion/156425-bri...g-again-5.html

QuoteQuote:
Indeed, Hill’s major "problem" was handling the tremendous profits the SPM&M was realizing under his leadership. Politicians and government generally regarded the net profits of a railroad as a tax levied upon the many for the benefit of a few stockholders. Reporting too much profit was an invitation for the politicians to legislatively lower passenger and/or freight rates. Consequently, Hill plowed much of his true profits into capital improvements that were charged to operating expense. The result of these "forced loans" was to create an even more efficient and well-built railroad that in turn directly increased its earning power. This earning power would clearly justify further issuance of stock but oftentimes the charter of the railroad had strict limits on how much stock could be issued!
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