Just my opinion …On Bain and Romney

Kelley Higgins

US Citizen

 

The Bain issue is this: When a business operator creates a business model that includes pillaging and plundering going concerns for the sake of profits, there is a solid basis for criticism. Most of the time, in our free enterprise system, business operators create a business as an engine of profit by virtue of the business’s commercial activity. Gaining profit by killing the business is antagonistic to this effort. It is preying on the heart and soul of the free enterprise system. It is this element of the Bain business model that I find despicable. At the business level, there are certainly companies that become troubled and ultimately collapse. However, many troubled companies arrive at a point where “the helping hand” makes all the difference. We saw this in the auto industry and this issue highlights a critical difference between Obama and Romney. Obama stepped into to give the auto industry a “helping hand” and a troubled industry has recovered and is now thriving, providing jobs, products, profits and tax revenues. On the other hand, Romney went on record stating he would allow the industry to collapse costing people their jobs and retirement funds, depriving investors of their investments and profits and depriving our economy of tax revenue. He is disposed to withhold “the helping hand”.

 

There is more to this issue. I have heard it argued that our free enterprise system exists wholly and solely for the sake of profit. Further that the unrelenting drive for profit and an open market establishes an economic engine that creates the optimal mix of product quality and profitability. However, our free enterprise system also provides millions and millions of individuals with an opportunity to establish, run and maintain their personal livelihoods. They are integral to the free enterprise system. If these people did not need to work to maintain their livelihoods, the free enterprise system would have no one to generate their products and services. So the workers and their economic agenda is an integral part of the free enterprise system.

 

The Bain Business Model was created with a disposition not only to to withhold “the helping hand” to a struggling business, but to pillage and plunder it, manipulating the business legal system to not only destroy the economic infrastructure of the company, but also deprive employees of their jobs and, in many cases, their retirement savings in the form of pensions. It was done under the guise of “just business”. This may not be illegal, but it is ethically and morally corrupt. My read on people who engage in such practices is that they lack empathy as a person. Otherwise how could they repeatedly go into an organization, gut it, and leave hundreds of people jobless and, worse, pensionless. It’s shameful.

 

Many companies in our free enterprise system grasp the human dimension of their companies. Owners and CEOs, value their employees and govern their organizations with an eye toward the well being of their employees as well as the generation of profit. These are not mutually exclusive issues.

 

Clearly, Bain grew and developed companies as well as destroyed them. The decision for what to do though was simply the bottom line. If you could make more money growing the business, then grow it. If you could make more money killing the business, then kill it regardless of the human impact. The “helping hand” was withheld. It is this willingness to engage in this type of business practice that disturbs me about Romney. It shows gross insensitivity to human suffering. Romney’s comment that corporations are people is related to this issue. If he thinks that corporations are people, then what does his treatment of ailing companies say about him? This notion that corporations are people also shows a gross confusion of one’s sense of humanity. Just because a court rules that a corporation has certain rights similar to individuals does not bequeath humanity or peopleness to them.

 

Our free enterprise system is a robust, broad dynamic concept. It has room for a huge range of business models. It is not being put on trial when we criticize the Bain Business Model. The Bain Business Model is a dark, ruthless and greedy example of the worst side of our free enterprise system. Criticizing the Bain Model of Business simply criticizes the dark and ugly side of the free enterprise system to discourage such behavior. It may not be illegal, but it is deplorable. Fortunately, the Bain Model of Business is not necessary for our free enterprise system. Our free enterprise system can survive and thrive without the Bain Model.

 

The President of the United States has the job of representing a vast diversity of human needs and interests. While some aspects of his job can be seen as similar to managing a business, our president represents the people of the United States. In my opinion, there is no place in our Presidency for a person that withholds “the helping hand” or the Bain Model of Business.