| |
Mitt Romney had it right when he said "I like being able to fire people."
In spite of what the idiots who immediately took umbrage at his statement have said, Mitt was right
then and he is still right. What he said and what he meant was that he liked to have the right to
fire those that are incompetent, dishonest, or lazy. I agree with him wholeheartedly!
I want the right and the opportunity to fire someone who doesn't provide the
service that is due me. I want the right to fire a politician who doesn’t serve my interests. I want
the right and the opportunity to fire the heads of companies that don't provide the goods and services
that I want at the price that is reasonable.
Even Jesus Christ fired those who deserved to be fired.
The Gospels tell us that Jesus fired the money-changers in the Temple. In the narrative of Jesus and the
money changers, Jesus and his disciples travel to Jerusalem for Passover, where he expels the money
changers from the Second Temple, accusing them of turning the Temple into a den of thieves through their
commercial activities. In the Temple, the courtyard is described as being filled with livestock and the
tables of the money changers, who changed the standard Greek and Roman money for Jewish and Tyrian money
which the Passover pilgrims used to buy food and lodging for themselves and to purchase animals that were
used for their Passover sacrifices. Creating a whip from some cords, Jesus drove the money changers out
of the temple, poured their money onto the ground and overturned their tables.
We are a free and independent country because our forefathers fired
King George and his government in 1776!
In our society, no one should be entitled to hold his or her position for
life without providing value for the benefits received, no matter whether he is an owner or an employee.
Failing to do so means he should be fired.
Liberals and socialists are aghast at the concepts of firing an incompetent,
closing an unprofitable business, or doing away with redundant or unnecessary employment positions.
They believe in keeping a train fireman on the job even if there is no longer a coal-fired steam
engine into which to feed coal; they believe in continuing to pay the buggy-whip maker even if there
are no more horse-drawn carriages that nee need buggy whips. They believe in the philosophy of
Karl Marx and not that of Ronald Reagan.
“Yes, some of the companies in which Bain invested failed, and people lost
their jobs as a result. Others – like Staples, Sports Authority and
Domino’s Pizza – succeeded and created hundreds of thousands of jobs.”
(Ref. 1) Isn’t that why capitalism has succeeded and socialism has
failed? Contrary to liberal and socialistic philosophies, a job is not an entitlement
(unless it happens to be a government job). Under capitalism, a private business is beholden to
its investors/owners and does not exist simply to pay workers and pay taxes. Under capitalism,
there will always be economic winners and losers. Private investors take the economic risks and
deserve the economic rewards of the successes, just as they incur the financial losses of the failures.
These same risk takers are responsible for the jobs created with their successes and the taxes that
are paid by these successes. Unlike socialism, there is no free lunch with capitalism.
“Free markets depend upon failure . . . You can’t have light bulbs without
destroying much of the candle making business. At Bain, Romney was part of the process that fueled
innovation. That’s nothing to be ashamed of.” (Ref. 2)
Not only do I want the right to fire incompetent employees, I also want
the right to “fire” those people in our society who are “takers”, those who sponge off the programs
designed to help those in real need, but who in reality are not truly in need. These are the leeches
who take what they do not deserve and which they do not truly need. The growing trend to take from the earners
and producers in our society and to “redistribute this wealth” to the non-productive segment of the
population is a trend that I want to see abolished. “We are warehousing a larger and larger population
of adults who are one way or another living off transfer payments, sub-prime credit, and the black
market. … It’s a story we know too well.
“Needing a job and not having one is discouraging. But seeing people who
ought to be working but, thanks to the system, don’t have to is absolutely maddening.”
(Ref. 3) I say, let’s fire these sycophants!
“There's absolutely no mystery why our greatest complaints are in the arena of
government-delivered services and the fewest in market-delivered services. In the market, there are the
ruthless forces of profit, loss and bankruptcy that make producers accountable to us. In the arena of
government-delivered services, there's no such accountability. For example, government schools can go
for decades delivering low-quality services, and what's the result? The people who manage it earn
higher pay. It's nearly impossible to fire the incompetents. And, taxpayers, who support the service,
are given higher tax bills.” (Ref. 4) Mitt Romney
gave us the right solution to this problem – fire the incompetents!
On another issue, Romney also had it right when he said that our anti-terrorist
efforts shouldn’t be focused simply on capturing or killing one man, Osama bin Laden.
“Presumptive Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney called on
President Barack Obama to not let the killing of Osama bin Laden become a ‘politically divisive event.’
“Romney said Obama can rightfully take credit for bin Laden's downfall.
But he said it was ‘very disappointing for the president to try to make this a political item’
by suggesting he wouldn't have ordered the raid, saying, ‘Of course I would have.’
“Romney told ‘CBS This Morning’ . . . that he and Obama have plenty of
issues to fight over without parting company on anti-terrorism strategy.
“Without mentioning Romney's name, Obama suggested the former
Massachusetts governor had waffled on whether he would have taken out bin Laden.
“Romney said, ‘I think trying to attack me on that basis is
inappropriate and the wrong course.’” (Ref. 5)
What Mitt Romney had previously said was that he felt it was not
appropriate for the U.S. to focus all its efforts on capturing and killing one
man – and Mitt had it right! The real enemy was not and still is not Osama bin Laden
nor al Qaeda – the real enemy facing the United States is radical
fundamentalist Islam! Even with bin Laden dead and al Qaeda in retreat, we are still
engaged in an ongoing war with radical Islam.
As an Obama campaign ad quite correctly said, in 2007, "It's not worth
moving heaven and earth, spending billions of dollars just trying to catch one person."
(Ref. 6) Instead, those billions of dollars should be spent on
defeating radical fundamentalist Islam which should be the real objective.
In 2012, when asked by a reporter whether he (Romney) would have made the
call to go after Osama bin Laden once he was found, Romney said "of course" he would have.
"Even Jimmy Carter would have given that order." (Ref. 6)
On still one more issue, Romney appears to have been correct. Commenting
on the problem of illegal immigration, it is reported that, “At the time Mitt Romney made a reference
to ‘self-deportation’ through tougher employer and immigration enforcement in a January debate,
he got roundly criticized for believing that illegals would choose to leave the US. Today,
National Journal says Romney has been vindicated by a new study of immigration from and to Mexico.
For the first time in decades, more people returned to Mexico than arrived from there, and
the trend may end up being permanent.
“The largest wave of immigration in history from a single country to the
United States has come to a standstill. After four decades that brought 12 million current
immigrants—more than half of whom came illegally—the net migration flow from Mexico to the
United States has stopped—and may have reversed, according to a new analysis by the Pew Hispanic
Center of multiple government data sets from both countries.
(Ref. 7)
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
References:
- Toxic twins poison GOP primaries, Jennifer C. Braceras,
Boston Herald, Page 17, 16 January 2012.
- Businesslike Mitt should free the markets, Jonah Goldberg,
Boston Herald, Page 19, 11 April 2012.
- Dems playing game of stats, Michael Graham, Boston Herald,
Page 17, 14 March 2012.
- Health Care: Government vs. Private, Walter Williams, Creators.com;
http://www.creators.com/opinion/walter-williams/health-care-government-vs-private.html,
(Accessed 14 March 2012).
- Mitt Romney: Obama Campaign Bin Laden Attack Is 'Very Disappointing',
The Huffington Post, 1 May 2012.
- Romney: 'Even Jimmy Carter' would have ordered bin Laden attack,
CNN Political Unit, CNN Politics, 30 April 2012.
- Was Romney right about self-deportation?, Ed Morrissey, Hot Air,
24 April 2012.
| |
