Saturday, July 14, 2012

Romney's Bain Problem

It doesn't matter to me whether Romney's SEC filings were a fraud and a felony or just a legal fiction. What matters is that this reveals that Romney's claim that he made money by "working hard" is a big fat lie. He is now demonstrated that a guy like him makes money by doing so little that could be called "work" that it's hard to tell when he did or didn't stop "working."

Compare that to the life of a real worker. A strawberry picker, a janitor, a bus driver--those guys know damn well whether or not they are working and why they get a pay check.

A nurse, a doctor, a teacher--they do work that makes them tired at the end of the day. A college professor who has a part-time gig writing for the Times and who bangs out books and goes on tour to promote them--not as much sweat as the strawberry picker, or even the nurse, but nevertheless, real, time-consuming work that can be seen and measured.

Big shots like Romney, however, who pull in the real big money? Their work is so ethereal, so subtle and sublime, that ordinary people can't actually perceive whether or not they are still doing that "work" or whether they are just collecting money that falls from the sky into their bank accounts. They themselves might be a little unclear about whether they still "work" or whether they are, as Romney claimed, now "unemployed."

Jeez, even multi-million dollar basketball players and movie stars have to at least show up and do something to collect those enormous paychecks. But a guy like Mitt? It is all a matter of metaphysics whether or not he still "works."

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