"We've always encouraged young people: Take a shot, go for it, take a risk, get the education, borrow money if you have to from your parents, start a business," Romney said.
If only I had heard this a decade ago when I was killing myself struggling to work my way into developing video games! Borrow money from my parents! It's just so obvious that I feel stupid for not thinking of it myself! "Mom and Dad, can I borrow half a million dollars to develop a small scale independent video game?"
Oh, wait... right... my parents didn't have half a million dollars for me to borrow from them. Half a million dollars is half of what my dad earned over the course of decades working a good union labor job. Mom and Dad had savings of course, but not enough to loan me start up capital for my own business.
I swear to god. Romney truly is completely out of touch with life for most people living in this country (not to mention the entire world). I knew Romney was running for President out of nothing more than pure selfish ambition, but I haven't seen anyone running for office who was this trapped in their own bubble since... well, the idiot who handed the Mass Senate seat to Scott Brown because she wasn't going to stand "outside Fenway Park? In the cold? Shaking hands?".
Romney doesn't scare me like a Palin or a Paul, but I swear to god that if this country elects that entitled stepford asshole then... I don't know.
Update:
I should add, for the record, that I succeeded breaking into the video game industry. I direct games now. Nothing huge, but it's a very fun, challenging and rewarding career that I am very grateful for and proud of. I spent from age 1 to 7 in foster care. I was adopted by foster parents. My adopted dad had a good middle class union job, but with 12 kids we were effectively barely above being poor. But this is America. Where even someone who starts out as a foster kid has the opportunity to work hard and sacrifice and succeed.
I believe in encouraging young people to have the guts and tenacity to make their dreams come true in America. I live the belief. Which is why Romney's comment strikes a nerve in me. Romney and his kids will never understand the American dream, because the American dream is something you achieve not something you get handed to you on a silver platter by your super rich parents. You work hard to make sure your kids have more opportunity than you did, but you don't buy them success or kick the ladders of of opportunity out from underneath kids who's parents can't buy them success. That kind of nepotism is the antithesis of the American dream. I just hope enough voters believe in America as the land of opportunity for everyone and have the good sense to vote for President Obama again.
