Back in April, Mitt Romney delivered one of his more memorable pieces of advice. Talking to Otterbein University in Ohio, the Republican said President Obama is against "success" -- I still have no idea what that was in reference to -- but Romney prefers to "encourage young people."
"Take a shot, go for it, take a risk, get the education, borrow money if you have to from your parents, start a business," Romney said.
The line was significant because of what it told us about Romney's approach to economic opportunities. If you're a young person who can't afford rising college tuition rates and/or don't have the resources to launch a business venture, the GOP's would-be president has some advice for you: choose wealthy parents.
I mention this because a very similar point came up yesterday at a Romney event in Elk Grove, Illinois, where the candidate was praising "the entrepreneurial spirit."
"I met a guy, you may know him, Jim Liautaud, you know Jim. Jim didn't do so well in high school.
"He graduated number two from the bottom of his class. And he went to his dad and said, 'Look, college isn't in my future. Can I get a loan from you to start a business?' And after a little discussion, his dad agreed to give him a loan. He went out and looked to see whether he could get one of these griddles to make hamburgers and those rollers to make hotdogs and found out they were more expensive than the money he had. The only thing he could make with the money he'd borrowed from his dad was sandwiches. So he set up some tables in a garage and made sandwiches and then he delivered them to the workplace to people who wanted them.
"Now Jimmy John has 1,200 restaurants across this country. That's the kind of entrepreneurial spirit that you see in Americans across the country. You see, these individuals don't look to government, they instead look to themselves and say, 'What can I do to make myself better?'"
It's a perfectly nice story and I'm glad Jim Liautaud has been successful. He had a good idea and produced a good product. More power to him.
But I don't think the story means what Romney thinks it means.
Liautaud didn't do well in school, but he was able create a profitable business because, according to Romney, his father provided him with financial resources. Liautaud had the individual initiative, the drive, the ingenuity, and the public infrastructure that allowed him to deliver his sandwiches, but he didn't have any money.
His father provided Liautaud with some seed loans and the rest his history. But what about the folks who also have the building blocks for success -- the individual initiative, the drive, the ingenuity, etc. -- but don't have parents with large amounts of disposable income?
In Romney's vision, these people are simply out of luck. Higher education isn't an option -- young people who can't afford to go to their college of their choice should "shop around" for some other institution, because a Romney administration doesn't intend to help with Pell Grants or student loans -- and entrepreneurial opportunities aren't really an option, either -- Romney believes small businesses should depend on parental aid, not governmental aid.
If you don't come from a wealthy family with tens of thousands of disposable income, well, that's a shame -- no small business for you.
To reiterate a point from April, my point isn't to mock Romney for being very wealthy or for having very wealthy parents. For that matter, I wish nothing but success for entrepreneurs who get seed money from Mom and Dad, and go on to create profitable ventures.
Rather, what matters here is that Romney is actively opposed to using public institutions to help level the playing field for everyone else -- and that's a problem voters need to consider.
Speaking of small businesses, the Obama campaign is "assembling an army of small business owners who say that they did engineer their own success -- thanks to the opportunities afforded them by generations of American taxpayers." That seems like a good idea.
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I wonder how many of those businesses Romney says didn't need government help to start their business, received SBA small business loans at one time or another? Or acquired government contracts to stay in business?
What about all the bankruptcies? Don't they allow money in his pocket and a new start, perhaps starting a new business?
My father is approaching 90 and now lives on Social Security, food stamps and a reverse mortgage. Neither my sister nor I can support him and wish we could, but she has been unable to secure a job until recently (after 8 yr. of trying valiantly), but younger employers don't want to hire their "mother," so she has lived off of her savings until a month ago. After a prolonged illness and various surgeries, I lost my home and recently was able to secure disability. I now live with him and care for him, and he for me. Dad is sharp as ever but relies frequently upon Medicare to keep him going. In 2007, the Congress and Missouri's state and local govt. honored him as Founder of BiltBest in 1947. Dad attributes his success to the help of the SBA, local banks, great employees and his own hard work and ingenuity. He often shares stories of how he both got and gave help to small businesses. Dad's a HUGE Obama fan, as am I, and we are both terrified at the thought of a Romney administration. Also, we both believe that Romney has not released his tax returns BECAUSE, we theorize they will illustrate how MUCH he profited from Bain's vulture capitalism during the period of time they laid off so many employees. That scenario would be FAR worse than not paying "any" or "low" taxes. Not sure if they would also illustrate the depth or extent of his overseas/offshore money. Rachel - since your team is awesome at uncovering "dirty politics," what does your team think?
You're missing the point as usual Benen. The point wasn't that his parents were rich it was that he found a way to get money and used what he had to make a very successful business. There are plenty of other examples of those without rich parents doing something similar. The guy from Virgin I believe was from a poor background and has at most a high school education. Now he's one of the richest (liberals) in the world. This is just another example of leftist propaganda and bias in the mainstream media.
I live in northwern WI where the Liataud family have a multimillion dollar compound. (summer cabins) Jimmy John's dad was and is a multimillionaire and the "garage: story is ludicrous and he stole his own aunt's (Shipper) recipe's from her mega bucks franchise Erbert and Gerbert's. Jimmy John also happens to be a Romney delgate elected in central Illinois- is this quid pro quo-advertising for his "little" business in exchange for his support. And no suprise Jimmy John - big donator to our idiot governor in WI. As to how they treat the locals, they pay their employees as independent contractors so even the high school kids who clean their houses and guest houses have to pay their own social security taxes etc. Clearly illegal- so yes they are using the system to get even richer.
I live in northern WI where this family of multimillionaires have a multi million dollar compound in one of the poorest areas of WI but on one of the most beautiful lakes. And the son Jimmy was able to go to his very rich daddy and steal his also very rich aunt's business model (she started Erbert and Gerbert's) and cousin's sub shops in Madison WI to not end up where the usual kids who are last in their high school classes are-working for Jimmy John for minimum wage in his shop. They employ some locals to clean and do the usual hard back breaking work of carving perfection out of a wilderness and instead of making them "real employees" they hire even high school kids who clean there as contracted people who then pay their own social security and state and federal taxes. I am pretty sure these employees who have to show up on a schedule dictated by the family and work a certain amount of hours are what the IRS likes to call employees. They take every little advantage just like their pal Romney. In fact is was very nice to mention Jimmy John's business since he probably got a boost in sales - funny he happens to be a delegate elected from central Illinois this past primary season. They really do watch out for each other. And no there is no Liataud Youth Center or any other evidence that they children in this area have benefitted from the millionaires in there midst. There isn't even a public beach on the beautiful lake these people live on.
"Few are fortunate enough to have the opportunity to grow up the privileged child of the rich man. As a matter of numbers, it’s just not reality."
Experience Life among the Ordinary and read more about Nature: A Higher Authority at
http://lifeamongtheordinary.blogspot.com/2012/01/nature-higher-authority.html
Romney is advocating p2p lending now?
Shooter- I don't want you to kill yourself. I hope you have a nice long happy life. However you're the one who missed the point. It's about Romney's disconnect with most of the people in this country. Political ambition has turned what at one time was probably a good man into a man without a moral center. By the way most of us lefties want you to go on living my friend. We just disagree with you.
I hope I am not being redundant because I don't have time to read all 300 comments, but I am wondering how accurate Romney's version of this story was since the loan was for $24,900 and he couldn't afford a griddle and a hotdog warmer? $25k and he could only set up tables in his garage and make some sandwiches? Maybe he had some gambling debts which would explain why he didn't so so well on his finals...I'm just sayin..