Thanks to the North County Times
Thanks to the North County Times for its efforts throughadvertising of creative means in providing a useful newspaper,including opinion letters of questionable scholarship. The currentcriticism of Mitt Romney for the results of his record with BainCapital is a case in point.
This company was used by Mitt to buy already failing companiesin the hopes of making them profitable. In 14 years at Bain, beforeleaving to turn around the failing 2002 Olympics, Romney producedastonishing returns for his investors and made a fortune forhimself. Bain’s record includes a small number of great successesand large numbers of failures. I would suppose that many of theemployees who caused the initial failures were still with eachcompany at its final closing.
This record of a small number of great successes and largenumber of failures is typical of venture capital turnarounds. Thisis also what happens in publishing and filmmaking, where a fewbest-sellers pay the freight for all of the obscure flops. Ourfellow readers would be well advised to support worthwhileenterprises that are of value to them, such as the NC Times.
Vincent Morrison
Oceanside
Romney the height of arrogance
As he waves the American flag, Willard “Mitt” Romney wants us tobelieve he was an altruistic job-creation machine as CEO of BainCapital. What a crock. Pure and simple, Bain Capital’s goal was tomake money for its partners and investors. It worked. Romney is theWall Street poster boy for “greed is good,” making nearly a quarterbillion dollars for himself while at Bain. Nothing wrong with that,but it is the height of arrogance for Willard to pretend hisprimary goal was to create jobs.
At Bain Capital, Romney acquired companies, loaded them withdebt, fired employees and in 22 percent of the cases, managedcompanies into bankruptcy. In one case, Romney used Bain to raidworkers’ pension funds, then stuck the government (U.S. taxpayers)with the bill, but Willard still made a profit on the deal(“Romney’s steel skeleton in the Bain closet,” Jan. 6,www.reuters.com)
Steve Forbes has said Romney should explain deals where BainCapital took money out of companies that collapsed. I agree.
Bottom line: Romney created as few jobs as possible to bag themost profits as possible. Great, it worked for Romney byexploiting, taking unfair advantage of hardworking people.
Robert Tormey
Escondido
Why should we believe the ‘climateexperts’?
For over 20 years, the Environmental Protection Agency, incollaboration with United Nations representatives, non-governmentalorganizations and a horde of grant-seeking climate “experts” havebeen pushing the global warming agenda. They emphasize that globalwarming is man-made and is caused by burning fossil fuels. They sayauto emissions create carbon dioxide, which causes a “greenhouseeffect.”
They have relentlessly and forcefully warned us that carbondioxide must be reduced because too much global warming is harmful.They predict if they reduce the global temperature by two degrees,they can save the planet from this hypothetical crisis. Therefore,they want us to believe that the government can actually reduce theglobal temperature.
However, according to a front page Associated Press article(“Scientists offer climate advice,” Jan. 13), scientists who haveinsisted for many years that CO2 is harmful and that we must slowglobal warming have abruptly changed their minds and have decidedto “stop focusing so much on carbon dioxide” and concentrate theirefforts on controlling methane and soot.
So, if CO2 was regarded to be such a hazard for the past 20years and is now considered to be irrelevant, why should we believeanything the “climate experts” say?
Darrell Beck
Ramona
Harsh immigration laws?
I found it amusing that the immigration people finally did somework and arrested business owners for hiring illegal immigrants todo the work that apparently Americans won’t do. This time, it is ata car wash in Rancho Penasquitos (“Car wash owners admit hiringillegal immigrants,” Jan. 20). The illegal immigrants had falsedocuments, a crime, but the owners liked their work so well thatthey kept them on.
Wouldn’t it be nice if the immigration department went at theillegal situation this way: You hire an illegal immigrant, you havethe possibility of going to jail, a huge fine and maybe losing yourbusiness. Pretty high stakes for hiring someone to save a fewbucks.
Maybe, just maybe, then the United States can take back theircountry from over 11 million illegal immigrants flooding into thiscountry, taking jobs from Americans, taking health care andeducation from more deserving citizens. Sounds harsh? Look upMexico’s immigration rules. We’re puffballs compared with them.
Don Snyder
Oceanside
Question, challenge for gun controladvocates
First, here is my question for gun control advocates: We haveabout 20,000 gun laws that criminals aren’t obeying, so how will20,001 laws help? Do gun control advocates think criminals are justgoing to suddenly decide, “Well, that’s 20,001 laws against ushaving guns, so I guess it’s time to go straight”?
Second, here is my challenge to gun control advocates: You putup signs in your yard saying, “This house is a gun-free zone,” andwe’ll put up signs in our yard saying, “This house insured by(insert firearm manufacturer of your choice),” and we’ll see whogets robbed first.
Victor Chabala
Oceanside
Economics and the dollar
Our dollar stands alone world-wide as the de facto currency andthe best investment. America benefits greatly from this. We need toaddress this circ*mstance and use it wisely.
Conservatives like to compare national and personal economics;that’s not a valid thought process, but let’s look. Our budget isless than one-fourth of our cash flow and our accumulated debt isalso less. Families owning a house routinely assume debt easilyfour times income, and most families’ budgets approach 100 percentof their income. If you insist on the comparison, America is doingbetter than most families.
Our economy has three legs: consumer, government and businessspending. Our stores carry many brands of appliances; the problemis not enough buyers. The vaunted “job creators” are flush withmoney, sitting on trillions. We don’t need another appliancefactory in China, we need Americans with jobs who can afford to buyappliances, preferably made in America.
The “job creators” aren’t doing their job. Consumers are scarceand tight. That leaves the third and smallest triad leg: thegovernment. We can pump up our economy, leveraging our dollar tofix our infrastructure while creating jobs. Households makelong-term decisions; so should governments.
Richard Crews
Encinitas
We’re sinking
The president emphasized his goal of providing a fair chance foreverybody. I believe that to be code for a “fair outcome” foreverybody —- we should all live in equal housing, drive similarcars and make equivalent income. Increasing taxes on capitalinvestments is just nonsense. Higher taxes were already paid onincome, which is then used to make a capital investment. Theinvestment itself is inherently risky, and there is a very realrisk of losing the investment entirely (just look at the number ofpeople who invested in housing, only to have it foreclosed).
It makes sense that the second level of tax (that applied tocapital investments) is a lesser amount. We are currently in aposition where more than 40 percent of us pay no taxes at all. Assoon as that number exceeds 50 percent, there will be no chancewhatever to apply sound financial judgment to our economy.
For evidence, simply look to Greece. They want more money tocontinue to fund their overburdened welfare system, but they’reunable to amass the votes necessary to effect change. No wonderthey are sinking, and we’re not far behind.
Mike Concannon
Escondido
Perfect man for president doesn’t exist
In an extremely rude act of television journalism, CNN moderatorJohn King led off the televised debate in South Carolina ofRepublican hopefuls to run for the office of president in theprimary election in that state by asking Newt Gingrich aboutallegations that he wanted an “open marriage” with his then-secondwife. Gingrich immediately verbally attacked King for the cheapshot, which brought a standing ovation from the audience.
Historically, major television network news anchors andreporters have been left-wing liberals who openly support anynominee for the Democrat party for the office of president. Therare exception is the Fox News network.
Let’s look back a bit in history. Democrat Franklin D. Roosevelthad a mistress, an affair that almost ruined his marriage. However,the liberal press did not report this, resulting in Roosevelt beingelected a record four times. Later, the womanizing John F. Kennedy,with rumored affairs from secretaries all the way up to a moviestar. The liberal press also covered this up. One rare exceptionwas Bill Clinton/Monica Lewinsky, which resulted in animpeachment.
The perfect man for the president of the U.S. doesn’t existbecause the last perfect man, according to the Christians, diedabout 2,000 years ago.
Leon Smith
Oceanside
American history
I have always enjoyed American history. I have also visited manytimes the replica of the log cabin where Abraham Lincoln lived as achild.
Can you imagine Abraham Lincoln having to raise $90 million inorder to “run” for the honor of being elected the president of theUnited States?
Richard Hayes
Oceanside
General Motors is as American as apple pie
In rebuttal to Craig Waterhouse’s letter datedJan. 20: Sorry, General Motors is an Americancompany, ask anyone.
Because some of General Motors’ autos are made outside the U.S.,Craig believes it is not an American corporation. Every large autocompany builds automobiles in countries other than their home. Infact, 16 companies build cars in America. That does not make themAmerican companies. Just because some U.S. vehicles are madeoutside the U.S. does not mean no jobs are created here.
Other than building the automobile, you need engineers anddesigners to create new models, you need scientists, programmers,accountants, managers, writers, testers, etc. —- thousands ofgood-paying jobs that remain in America. The other 13 foreigncompanies are doing the same: Their engineers and designers arehome working on their future automobiles.
And finally, numerous parts are made in the U.S. and shipped toother countries to build an American (foreign) auto. Analysts sayevery American auto job supports 10 other jobs. If GM or Ford wereto go under, up to 2.5 million jobs could be lost.
Gary Maruska
Escondido
Look intelligently for new teachers,superintendent
Bad grammar —- again! This time from Steve Gronke. I am soembarrassed to have him on our City Council and be the city’s mayorpro tempore plus a Vista Unified School District teacher.
He said in the article regarding his domestic dispute (“Vista councilman arrested; DA declines to filecharges,” Jan. 11) that the Dec. 30 incident “was a verbalargument between my wife and I.” Is it any wonder our English issliding down the drain if a teacher with a master’s degree doesn’tknow the preposition “between” is followed by “me,” not “I”?
Thanks for mentioning in an earlier article regarding theretirement of Joyce Bales, the VUSD superintendent, that she wastedmillions of our school funds on the Lindamood-Bell system (“School board to begin plan for replacingsuperintendent,” Jan. 10). Why doesn’t she reimburse the VUSDthese funds before she retires?
Here we have a teacher who speaks incorrectly and asuperintendent who wastes money. VUSD must look astutely andintelligently for its teachers and new superintendent.
Doris Teich
Vista
