Dennis Rahkonen: Pretty Boy Mitt, Contemporary Capitalism!

Piracy, pillage and plunder were how ruthless individuals historically first came to acquire great wealth. Later, slavery and feudalism allowed emerging aristocrats to luxuriate while masses suffered. Then came the Gilded Age of robber barons and callous tycoons, who would still be merciless exploiting us except for reforms won by trust busters and labor unions. No one could credibly laud such predatory behavior, but Mitt Romney is an enthusiastic practitioner of even what other Republican presidential aspirants are condemning as downsizing, outsourcing, deeply immoral "vulture capitalism."Romney exemplifies the worst of the greed-driven social irresponsibility that tanked our economy in 2008. His tone-deaf remark "I like being able to fire people" was followed by an interview answer in which he said that worsening American income disparity should be addressed in "quiet rooms." Forget painfully impacted workers at street rallies or other venues of public protest! At Bain Capital, Romney stripped countless wage-earners of their livelihoods, all for cruelly maximized private profit. Folk legend Woody Guthrie's words from his song Pretty Boy Floyd forcefully spring to mind: As through this world I've  wandered, I've seen lots of funny men; Some will rob you with a six-gun, And some with a fountain pen.