Labor Day In America

On labor day, my mind is wandering to childhood memories of business after business, industry after industry in Maine being bought up and sold off by companies like Bain Capital.  Evening newscasts of hardworking people who had given their lifetimes for American manufacturing,  watching in disbelief as their way of life was decimated so guys like Romney could amass absurd fortunes.  The only thing more shocking than him saying that he "knows how to fix business" is that people actually believe him.  If this is the cream of the republican crop, believe me when I tell you, I'm voting for the invisible guy in the chair.

Today the news is full of people asking Democratic strategists if they think the American people are better off than they were four years ago.  The Dems, in their typical fashion are hesitant to give a black and white answer to a black and white question that doesn't even begin to honor the complexity and severity of the economic situation we have found ourselves in over the past 11 years and over the course of the last two presidents.

If Obama was a republican, and if his strategists were as eager to shove a line of bullshit down our throats as the actual republicans they would answer with an unequivocal YES and then refuse to offer any details to support their nonsense.  But Dems don't do that because they know things are not so simple.

I'd be happy to answer the question from my own family's perspective: Of course we are better off than we were 4 years ago.  Thanks to the Obama administration and their tax credits for higher education, I have been able to return to school and am well on my way to a degree that will ensure my family's economic stability in the years to come.  My husband, who is a type 1 diabetic no longer has to be concerned with insurance companies denying him coverage or excluding his treatment for extended periods of time.  (and trust me, as I know from experience that the insurance companies would claim a broken leg was somehow related to his diabetes and refuse to cover the cost). These are but two examples of how our position in life has improved in the years since Obama has been running the show.

I get that there are fundamental differences of opinion on the role of government in our lives.  To be frank, I'd probably be more apt to vote republican if republican leaders actually did the things that they say they believe in.  But they don't.  Instead, they pick guys like Romney, who expects me to consider his success as honorable when I know that he has only succeeded by destroying what others have built with their own labor.  Why should I, a working class girl with a brain (and a 3.947 GPA in economics and accounting) do that?  I just can't because its offensive. Pure and simple.  I can't and I won't.

I hope this country does the right thing and sees through this nonsense.

I found this article to be an easy to read and understand explanation of the concept of venture capitalism.  If I live to be a 100, I'll never understand why this country is so eager to celebrate stories like this guy's.  I just can't understand how destroying others in pursuit of your own endless greed is somehow transformed into some rags to riches story to be excited about.

http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/greed-and-debt-the-true-story-of-mitt-romney-and-bain-capital-20120829