(Below)Edward Conard, Mitt Romney's pal from Bain Capital, thinks that "greed isgood".
After reading the New York Times article called ThePurpose of Spectacular Wealth, According to a Spectacularly Wealthy Guy byAdam Davidson, my head was about to explode. It's about Edward Conard, who wasthe managing director at Mitt Romney's Bain Capital from 1993 until 2007.
Go ahead, read it now...then remember, the article was published on May 1st-- International Workers' Day (also known as May Day).
Edward Conard was born in 1956 and grew up in a middle-class suburb ofDetroit, just as Mitt Romney also grew up in a Detroit suburb. Romney'sneighborhood was called Bloomfield Hills, and consistently ranks as one of thetop five wealthiest cities in the United States.
But Edward Conard was the son of a kindergarten teacher and a Ford engineer,yet he managed to end up going to Harvard Business School, just like MittRomney. And just like Mitt Romney, Edward Conard retired from Bain Capital withhundreds of millions of dollars at the early age of 51; but his buddy MittRomney wants the rest of us to work until we're 70 before we can collect ourmeager Social Security checks, even though it's common knowledge that it's theRICH that's lives longer that everybody else.
If Edward Conard were born today, he might not be going to Harvard businessschool, even though both his parents had good union jobs. Corporate America hasbeen busting labor unions since the height of their membership in the 1950s. TheUnited Auto workers cut a deal to pay new employees half of what they onceearned, and teachers are being laid off left and right -- their unions arealways under attack by Romney's Republican thugs.
Everybody blames the unions for job losses, but those people (if they'relucky) are only making middle-class wages, just like firefighters, the police,and union steel workers do today. Just like autoworkers in Detroit did. Justlike Edward Conard's daddy once did.
All the jobs today are in the service industry, and they pay under $10 an hour,probably good wages back in the 1960s and 70s, but not so today in 2012.Corporations are still outsourcing the good-paying domestic jobs for cheaperlabor in places like China, India, and Mexico, enabling foreign workers to bethe new consumers of their products. Wages have been stagnant for the past 30years as the cost of living for low-paid workers has skyrocketed.
Even two incomes aren't enough anymore, and especially with a lack of jobsecurity these days, who knows when their job is next to go to Korea, Panama,Columbia, or Vietnam. The Republicans want to ease VISA restrictions so Americancorporations can import cheap engineers here, while millions of college gradsremain unemployed. Edward Conard's daddy would have to worry about losing hisjob at Ford -- and his mom might also be laid off due to budget cuts by theRepublicans to pay for tax breaks for the rich...for people like Mitt Romney andEdward Conard.
How much money does someone like Edward Conard, Mitt Romney, Bill Gates orthe Walton's need? They never have enough. It's like an obsession or mentalillness for them. They're insatiable. They hoard.
"Wealth is like sea-water; the more we drink, the thirstier webecome; and the same is true of fame." - Schopenhauer
Instead of the top 1% giving money to charities for a tax deduction, whydon't all these rich people just pay their employees a fair, honest, and livingwage instead? Maybe a lot less people will need to rely on charities. Do theWaltons need more money when they pay their employees at Wal-Mart $8 a hour withno benefits? How many BILLIONS will be enough?
...and that's why we have to print money....low taxes on the rich, a growingpopulation, and hoarding at the top...money isn't being circulated throughoutthe economy....pay us well and we'll buy things, pay us too little and we'llhave to ask for food stamps.
When Edward Conard grew up his daddy was making a good living at that Fordplant, and with a wife bringing home a second income as a teacher was nice,because back then the divorce rates were much lower. I would guess that EdwardConard doesn't think that the cost of living has went up much since the 1950s,or that college tuition at Ivy league schools are for everybody, and don'trequire 20 years of student debt just because they earn the minimum wage of$7.25 an hour.
It must have been a very long time since Edward Conard had to worry aboutbeing fired from a job (and paying rent)...like Mitt Romney said he once did. (Thatwas funny.)
Edward Conard mentioned nothing at all about paying workers a living wage inthat New York Times piece, or that our tax rates are already historicallylow (capital gains taxes were taxed at 12.5% in 1921, when the rich got thathuge tax break); and the top 1% has been making record profits these last fewyears while everybody else was being laid off and losing their homes.
People like Edward Conard don't live in the same economy (or country itseems) than the rest of us do. Trickle down economics doesn't work in the"real" economy...it was an utter failure, and today's economy is proofof that.
There was no run on the banks, what they hell was he talking about? EdwardConard is either delusional, ignorant, greedy, or insane...like most of his ilkin his income bracket.
He said, "The wealth concentrated at the top should be twice aslarge." Oh really? He would eliminate all capital gains taxes just so heand his ilk can be richer, then they would cut all government services to payfor this, and pay all working Americans $1 an hour to empty their garbage canand shine their shoes -- and then tell us all that this economy is"good" for us. He must be insane!
There's also piece about Edward Conard at Forbes that came out twodays later after the Times article called WhyCapitalism Works: Or, Edward Conard is Too Pessimistic, but I didn't readit....I've had enough of people like Mitt Romney and Edward Conard.
There's also an article at MSNBC called FormerBain honcho says economic inequality is OK
If Edward Conard publishes his new book, I fear he might get death threatsand hate mail, although not from me, I've already said my piece.
Oh, I almost forgot... Edward Conard, you're an @asshole!
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