October 3, 2012, First Presidential Debate, and a man quotes,
“Second topic, which you said I get a second deduction for taking a plant overseas. Look, I have been in business for twenty five years”, the Republican nominee, Mitt Romney pauses, and fixes his wide open and much practiced gaze at the president for a moment.
Mitt then stated abruptly to his opponent, “I have no idea what you are talking about.”
Based on our current economic conditions, many American people may unanimously agree that having a smart and savvy business man in office might perhaps be a good idea. It has potential to appeal to the working class folks of this country, most certainly the individuals who are victims of downsizing and outsourcing; that there is a hope for them after all to regain control of their daily lives once again.
Mitt Romney founded a corporation with some of his constituents in 1984 that were derived from Bain & Company, which was found in 1973 and one of the most lucrative and prestigious consulting firms on the planet. In 1984 the branch out became Bain Capital based out of Boston, MA. Bain Capital’s specialty includes products such as venture capital, high yield assets, leveraged buy outs, Mezzanine capital, public equity, and growth capital to name a few. They are located globally and with locations also in Hong Kong, Shanghai and Mumbai.
Sounds promising, right? Let us take a mental trip to Freeport, IL and see how remunerative Bain Capital is for these people.
With a population just exceeding 25,000, Freeport is an example of working class, middle town America. Celebrating in it’s German heritage, migrated from Pennsylvania, this town is also known as the “Pretzel City”. They started out in the mid to late 1800’s as a tight nit community with many historical markers which encompass a hard working and patriotic group of American citizens.
One pertinent fact, Honeywell announced on October 28, 2010, that they move their automotive on-board censor products to Sensata Technologies, which is a Bain Capital controlled organization.
The first decision this company made once the acquisition was complete was to schedule a shutdown of their Freeport, IL plant and outsource their production to China.
Our Republican candidate owns approximately 8 million dollars worth of Bain funds that hold about 51 percent of Senasta’s shares. If Sensata saves a few bucks by closing the Freeport branch operation, it could add some cash flow to Mr. Romney’s trust accounts, now and after the election.
In Freeport, IN the unemployment rate was closed at 11.6 percent according to U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. This is a town that is already suffering economically and this additional lack of industry will bring even further devastation to families that are impacted. This lack of employment opportunity will be certain to result in more food stamp disbursements, unemployment compensation, Medicaid dependants, TANIF recipients and many other forms of social programming.
We have a presidential nominee that prides himself in his capabilities on turning the job market around.
The same nominee states that we need to pull each other up by the bootstraps and lessen our reliance as a society on the government to take care of our nation. For those that remain unaffected by this vulgar display of greed, they still stand strong in voting for anti-encumbrance due to that fact that they have not felt the repercussion of corporatism. Sensata was far from going broke; it was a matter of skimming the extra dollar.
Today, among about a dozen workers, Reverend Jesse Jackson, with hopes of turning this decision around were arrested assumedly for trespassing in protest of the current affairs.
Freeport Mayor, George Gaulrapp, says he talked to Sensata management yesterday and they threatened to close the plant early if anyone entered the building today. As far as we know, that didn’t happen. A caravan of about 50 former workers and supporters headed to the fire department where the people who were arrested are to be released.
Another topic worth mentioning, were what the employees have to undergo as a result of this profitable endeavor. Tom Gaulrapp, a Sensata associate, stated that during the transition, when Chinese employees came to the plant, the American Flag was lowered and taken down to accommodate the visiting new personnel, Dot Turner, another displaced employee shared that when these transients are to come, they are to train the Chinese workers on how to perform their job as they are losing their own Some of these associates are seasoned to thirty plus years.
I give special gratitude to Karl Unger, of Coplay, PA for bringing this story to my attention and assisting with supplying the resources for fact checks. Karl is a freelance political analyst that hosts a private forum that involves political and economic discussion.
My question to the public, is this acceptable? And if you deem so and think this will help society, well, how?
