{"id":962,"date":"2012-01-10T15:35:15","date_gmt":"2012-01-10T20:35:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/frenchrevolution\/?p=962"},"modified":"2012-01-10T15:35:15","modified_gmt":"2012-01-10T20:35:15","slug":"battling-over-bain-jobs-free-enterprise-and-morality","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/frenchrevolution\/2012\/01\/10\/battling-over-bain-jobs-free-enterprise-and-morality\/","title":{"rendered":"Battling Over Bain: Jobs, Free Enterprise, and Morality"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

In New Hampshire and South Carolina, we are now witnessing the economic equivalent<\/a> of conservatives attacking a pro-life colleague using Planned Parenthood talking points. Let\u2019s be clear about what\u2019s happening here: Acting out of personal frustration and political desperation, three leading conservative politicians are faking<\/em> outrage about Mitt Romney\u2019s business practices and in so doing are actively selling poisonous moral and economic ideas to the American people. \u00a0The language of the Occupy movement is infecting Republican rhetoric.<\/p>\n

My concern is not so much for the twists and turns of any given political week but instead the larger, emerging meta-narrative that these Republicans are now feeding. \u00a0The Occupy world sees a job as a right, not a privilege. \u00a0The Occupy world tells Americans that their hard work is futile, and they can never achieve their dreams so long as the malicious 1% grow wealthier. \u00a0The Occupy world sees ordinary Americans as victims. \u00a0This is a narrative that is not only false but eats away at the soul of the American people.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Rebutting this narrative may be one of the great moral tasks of our time, and in rebutting that narrative we will not only reverse American decline but we will rescue millions of Americans from lives dominated by purposelessness, defeat, and dependency.<\/p>\n

Here is the core truth about jobs, corporations, and personal responsibility: \u00a0An employer does not exist to create jobs, rather a job exists to help an employer thrive<\/em>. \u00a0In other words, rational companies hire workers not simply because they can (hey, the money\u2019s there, why not?) but because that worker will materially contribute to the company\u2019s success. \u00a0This arrangement provides a profound mutual benefit: the employer gets the fruit of the worker\u2019s effort, and the worker not only gets a salary but also the great benefit of purposeful<\/em> work.<\/p>\n

Struggling companies and unions often lose sight of this social compact. \u00a0Unions (and non-union employees) often see the employer as simply a source of jobs, not an enterprise to be sustained and nurtured. \u00a0Employers will sometimes grow too attached to their employees and watch the enterprise flounder as too many people \u2014 or the wrong people \u2014 dominate the payroll. \u00a0Employers will also fail by not providing sufficient compensation and treatment for the efforts they demand, leading to high turnover and constant employee discontent.<\/p>\n

What do we do when a company struggles? \u00a0What should be our priority? \u00a0The answer is simple: seek a turnaround. \u00a0Is it rational to look at falling sales, rising costs, and aging equipment and say, \u201cNo matter what, we will not cut jobs\u201d? \u00a0Businesses cannot possibly make such a vow. \u00a0Even if it\u2019s a goal, it can\u2019t possibly be a promise.<\/p>\n

What did Mitt Romney do? \u00a0He invested in startups and struggling companies (the riskiest and most dangerous investments one can make \u2014 but also among the most crucial for the health of a free enterprise system) not with the goal of \u201ccreating jobs\u201d but with the goal of making money. \u00a0In other words, he had the same goal as virtually every rational business owner. \u00a0But in the miracle of the free enterprise system, if he succeeded in turning around a failing company or in creating a successful new corporation, people got jobs \u2014 real jobs, purposeful<\/em> jobs. \u00a0Staples has gone from one store to more than 2,000 worldwide<\/a>. \u00a0Do you think that created jobs? \u00a0Similar stories can be told of other Bain investments, like Domino\u2019s Pizza or Sports Authority.<\/p>\n

Of course not all investments worked. \u00a0Not all businesses can survive. \u00a0Then what do you do? \u00a0You take what value you can and then give it another try, with another business at another location. \u00a0The value you take becomes part of the investment in the next enterprise. \u00a0This process is at the core of the free enterprise system.<\/p>\n

To be sure, it is not at all painless. \u00a0And in that pain comes political opportunity, as sometimes well-meaning and (more frequently) opportunistic politicians tell suffering people that they are experiencing an injustice, that they are helpless in their plight, and that only the intervention of the government can give them the security they crave. \u00a0The South, plagued for generations with poor education, systemic racism, and simmering class resentments, has historically been particularly fertile ground for \u201cpeople versus powerful\u201d populism, and it\u2019s hardly a coincidence that the attacks on Mitt are reaching a crescendo as we head towards South Carolina.<\/p>\n

Ironically, we are now facing a primary campaign that is a virtual dry run for the general election, with the Republican front-runner getting hammered from the left<\/em> by hysterical populist rhetoric. \u00a0Perhaps this fight will serve to toughen Mitt Romney for the general election.<\/p>\n

But there could be a more ominous outcome. \u00a0Perhaps the attacks will work, and the Republican party will have lost the free enterprise argument by arguing against itself, and we\u2019ll be left with two candidates \u2014 one from each party \u2014 who seek to attain power by pandering to the feelings dependence, powerlessness, and hopelessness of an increasingly economically ignorant population.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In New Hampshire and South Carolina, we are now witnessing the economic equivalent of conservatives attacking a pro-life colleague using Planned Parenthood talking points. Let\u2019s be clear about what\u2019s happening here: Acting out of personal frustration and political desperation, three leading conservative politicians are faking outrage about Mitt Romney\u2019s business practices and in so doing […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":31,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[28,23,187,22],"class_list":["post-962","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-economics","tag-mitt-romney","tag-occupy","tag-social-justice"],"yoast_head":"\nBattling Over Bain: Jobs, Free Enterprise, and Morality<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"In New Hampshire and South Carolina, we are now witnessing the economic equivalent of conservatives attacking a pro-life colleague using Planned\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, 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