Wednesday, December 28, 2011

Ethical Business Practices?

Mitt Romney's Bain Capital made money for investors, but fired hundreds of people.  If you need some sources for this type of information, here are a few----

LA Times (12/3/2011):

...Bain formed GSI in the early 1990s by spending $24 million to acquire and merge steel companies with plants in Missouri, South Carolina and other states.

Company managers cut jobs and benefits almost immediately. Meanwhile, Bain and other investors received management fees from GSI and a $65-million dividend in the first years after the acquisition, according to interviews with company employees....

....More than 700 workers were fired, losing not only their jobs but health insurance, severance and a chunk of their pension benefits. GSI retirees also lost their health insurance and other benefits. Bain partners received about $50 million on their initial investment, a 100% gain....

I don't know a whole lot about business practices, but I do know that it is wrong to make huge profits while ordinary workers lose jobs, health insurance, and pension money.  That shows pure greed on the part of Bain.

GSI wasn't the only company to be destroyed by  Bain.

The AtlantaJournal-Constitution details a similar scenario with a company, Holson Burnes, once employing hundreds in South Carolina and later in Claremont, New Hampshire.  According to the article, Bain investors made huge profits, and hundreds of workers lost jobs and pensions when the company closed.

These are just a couple of companies which went down the tubes after Bain used their business plan on them. People lost jobs and everything else.  Yet Romney brags about his job creation. Really?  Really?