The main issue which will probably dictate voters choice for president in 2012 is jobs. One of the candidates is Mitt Romney who makes the run after a successful career in the financial sector. Over the next six months Americans will be asked to evaluate his skills as a job creator working for Bain Capital. We will be asked to judge his management skills and the free enterprise system and decide if they are transferable to a position as leader of the free world.
The role of a capitalist is to generate profits for the owners of the business. In fact, it is to maximize those profits. If that requires firing employees or reducing their pay or benefits, the prime directive is always increasing profitability. On the contrary, the president of the United States has a much different directive. It is to provide for the security of the country, and health and welfare of the citizens. In many cases that priority runs contrary to balancing a financial worksheets. Do voters want the cheapest educational program for their children? If there is a choice between paying unemployment benefits to workers who have been fired or laid off in a recession, what is the choice that Americans would seek? Does the government have a role in providing for the adequate medical care for children whose parents cannot afford health insurance? Do we businessman the decisions are easy. Go cheap. But do Americans those kind of choices from their president? As a businessman, it makes sense to reduce the cost of education. Get rid of Medicare and Medicaid. Turn Social Security into a private option which reduces the potential cost liability to the government. If the choices are made by a businessman acting as President we can expect a redirection in America's priorities.
United States has had and always will have a free enterprise system. That has been a good thing for our country and has allowed us to prosper. However we cannot make all political decisions based upon cost. We have developed a social network that has served the needs of a population that requires assistance. An honorable and decent society requires a government that serves all its people, even those unable to afford private market solutions.
When the automakers on the verge of going out of business which would have put over 2 million workers out of a job, businessman Romney turned his back on those workers. Those were his decisions based upon his background in the financial market. Instead, President Obama made a decision to support a bailout of the industry. Most of the bailout funds have been repaid, and, as a result millions of Americans aren't workaday instead of looking for part-time work At a minimum wage. In the end, when the next critical decision must be made do we want a president guided by the profitability of a decision or the welfare of the people?
Finally, the GOP has chosen to try and misdirect the discussion of Romney and Bain Capital as a damnation of the free enterprise system by the president. Nothing is further from the truth. There is never been a comment suggesting that the free enterprise system is evil. That is not to say that there have not been actions that have been unethical or even fraudulent by some within the system. Was criticism of Enron justified? Were excesses within the mortgage market and derivatives reasonable? It is essential that we clarify the distinction between criticisms of some policies and a general condemnation of the capitalist system.
