The Danger in made up Conceptions

Being partisan as I am the President’s shtick on private equity and Mitt Romney’s work within that industry does nothing more than incite eye-rolling. However, I am starting to think that as the President’s campaign seems to coalesce about the notion that Romney is unfit to be President because of his work in private equity that more and more people will tire of this shtick as well. I think this because the President’s notion consists of simple invective statements repeated very often that require listeners to be uncurious and accepting. Over time it’s reasonable to think that many of these listeners will eventually be introduced to competing assertions and even seek them out.

They might wonder why it is that the President’s campaign is centered about the qualifications of his opponent and not about what it is that he has done over his term to deserve re-election and what policies he would pursue in a second term and how they would benefit the citizens of this country. Additionally, they might wonder qualifications the President has to credibly discuss the machinations of private equity and Romney’s record in the industry?

Next, they might contemplate the President’s conceptualization of private equity. How could any business make money by bankrupting companies? The simplistic idea of loading on debt and then exiting might seem believable but how exactly would that work and why would any lender continue to issue debt to a company that took out loans and then defaulted? It might be infuriating to learn that private equity firms focus on profit and not on the number of jobs created. But then consider, what is profit; crudely defined as revenue minus costs? How can profit even exist without some good or service being sold by a company invested in by private equity? And how could those goods or services exist without employees creating and managing them? At best the President might be able to convince some that job creation is incidental to business plans. This view does not change the fact that jobs result from offering more services and goods (which is how profits increase). They might learn that private equity firms target declining businesses and wonder what would happen to those businesses if not invested in by private equity. They might wonder how a declining businesses can continue without investment and contemplate the affect on jobs should a declining business cease to exist.

After thinking about business and determining that it just doesn’t make any sense for a company to make money by bankrupting companies over and over again. After coming to the conclusion that business make money by selling things and that those things require workers to offer and create them. They might consider Mitt Romney as a successful businessman who led a private equity firm, Bain Capital, which still exists and has invested in many businesses that are still around today making money by selling things to people that are made by other people. Finally, once they realize these things they might just realize that the President’s campaign is implausible.