CORPORATE PROFITS

The guy’s name is Schiff. He’s a radio talk show host. I take it he’s a conservative, or at least a Republican.

Anyway, he went to North Carolina to get some footage of the Democratic National Convention. The result is on You Tube.

Microphone in hand, Schiff stops people entering the convention hall.

“Would you support a platform that would favor a ban on corporate profits?”
“Oh, yes.”
“Of course.”
“I could actually support that.”
“I favor corporate losses.”
“Obviously something I would be for.”
“At least a cap on profits.”
“And a cap on CEO salaries.”

Admittedly, Schiff pandered to the idea of supporting the ban. He painted a picture of corporate big wigs gouging consumers and lining their pockets with generous bonuses, and blamed it on corporate profits.

His tongue-in-cheek harangue against corporate wealth earned him unexpected kudos.

With a smile of appreciation and admiration, one delegate told Schiff, “You happen to be one of the smartest people I’ve met since I have been down here.”

Almost at the same time the Schiff You Tube interviews landed in my email, someone sent me an article by Deroy Murdock in the New York Post, entitled “Look Who Parks Their Cash At Bain.”

The article lists Bain Capital clients who have entrusted Mitt Romney’s firm with 1.56 Billion dollars to invest on their behalf.

Here are the beneficiaries of “corporate profits:”

Illinois Municipal Retirement Fund, $2.2 million.
Indiana Public Retirement System, $39.3 million.
Iowa Public Employees Retirement System, $177.1 million.
Maryland State Retirement and Pension System, $117.5 million.
Public Employees Retirement System of Nevada, $20.3 million.
State Teachers Retirement System of Ohio, $767.3 million.
Pennsylvania State Emplyees Retirement System, $231.5 million.
Employees Retirement System of Rhode Island, $25million.
San Diego County Employees Retirement Association, $23.5 million.
Teacher Retirement System of Texas, $122.5 million.
Tennessee Consolidated Retirement System, $15 million.

In addition, Bain has managed endowments for such educational institutions as Yale, Princeton, Columbia, Purdue, and the universities of California, Michigan, Virginia and Washington.

Couple of days ago, Polly and I saw the movie “2016, Obama’s America.”

I was left with the uneasy feeling that our President has a very third world concept of political leadership.

Everybody talks about the President of the United States as being the most powerful man on the planet. In the minds of simple folk, who think that corporations are greedy conglomerations of wealth, the man who occupies that office is empowered to bestow financial security, health and happiness on all his constituents.

They will be heard on November 6.

And so will the rest of us.