Rick Perry and Newt Gingrich Are Right On!

By Daniel Liechty | January 25, 2012

Gary Hart is calling for a new debate about capitalism and I fully agree. Think about it. One group of capitalist investors looks for undervalued companies, uses their investment and management expertise to place these companies and their workers on solid footing, leaves them strong and secure, and then shares in their increased profitability. A second group of capitalist investors looks for undervalued companies with full intention of gutting them, stripping them of all existing assets, closing them down, firing the workers, selling off the machinery overseas, and then rewarding themselves with millions in management fees for doing so. Now, we all know there is a difference in the way a trusted animal vet and a procurer for a knackering plant look at a lame horse. Likewise, even we financial know-nothings can see a moral and economic difference between these two investment groups. Group one is socially beneficial and patriotic; group two is socially parasitic and as treacherous to the commonwealth as terrorism. Look around any American city that once had a strong manufacturing segment. Where are those jobs are today? Who raked in major profits, and who got poorer, as that manufacturing segment declined? This is a crucial point on which all laboring people, Dems, Repubs and Independents, the Tea Party and OWS folks, should be able to find plenty of common ground, along with everyone else who places the good of America’s future above their own short term quick profits. Rick Perry and Newt Gingrich are right on target in pointing out the difference between entrepreneurial investment capitalism and high finance vulture capitalism.