Mitt Romney’s basic message was let’s bring as many people from India and China to America as we can. Let’s give them the Ph.D. education in science and math. Let’s give them the good jobs. Lets give them the computer programming jobs. Let’s transfer our know-how to China and India. Let’s send our manufacturing there.
This is what his message was. Romney said the smart people are not Americans, they are in India and China. This is also the good people. The message Americans are dumb and bad students and workers, lets replace them was his economic message. That is why it didn’t sell.
Issues sell if you have something to say that makes sense. Romney said he was the one to manage the economy. But his message was give the good education to people not in the U.S. Keep giving them our universities and industries and jobs. That message didn’t sell.
The real message that sells is to stop immigration and have wages go up here, keep know-how here and teach Americans in American Ph.D. programs in math and science. Most such programs are full of people from India and China and everyone knows it.
Everyone knows that Silicon Valley tries to not hire Americans as programmers. This was who Romney appeared to be, part of that world of venture capital taking our jobs and know how and giving them to India and China. So people rejected him.
Men’s median wages are the same as in 1973. Women’s median is what men made in 1960. The labor force participation rates of white and black men were 80 percent in 1965 and are 74 and 67 percent today. See A Nation of Lou Dobbs Democrats link for links to data sources and graphs.
This is the economic fact reality from government statistics. Romney had no plan to change this but just continue it. He never said this is the problem and then how to fix it. Without a specific diagnosis there can’t be a specific remedy. Without a plan for a remedy its just a personality contest.
You can’t say Romney lost because people didn’t pick the better man. He should have had a specific plan. That plan starts with a diagnosis of what is wrong. That is that wages are the same as in 1973 for men even while productivity doubled and fewer men as a percentage have jobs. That is a sick society. That is the diagnosis. The cure is to stop immigration, stop student visas, keep know-how here, educate our people, keep our factories here and protect this country’s built up base of technology, engineering, industry, etc.
In the final analysis, Mitt Romney is still the Harvard MBA venture capitalist. He is the same as Bush in that regard, another Harvard MBA. Romney never spoke up against the interests of the venture capital firms that have grown rich from H-1B’s and know-how and factory transfer to India and China.
Mitt wanted the populist vote but only went half way. To be populist you have to stop the immigration that takes the good jobs, not just the bad ones and costs money for schools, ER’s, roads, police, etc. He failed to go against his VC Wall Street network, so the people didn’t vote for him.
Lawrence Auster has considered the view, without wholesale adopting of it, that its jealousy of Romney that is the problem. First look for what he did wrong, then blame it on jealousy. Romney has said he is good on economics, but the economy we have is good for the Romneys and bad for the rest, or increasingly tends that way. So he had to be able to figure that out, e.g. read the government statistics on wages and employment and figure out the solution, measures to push up wages and reduce income inequality, i.e. helping the people.
Romney didn’t do that. He didn’t advocate any program for the rest of us. So he was just a fat cat for fat cats as far as anything he said. So why not vote for the non-fat cat, John McCain?
You can only sell your self as the guy to fix the economy if you (1) diagnose it, (2) have a fix (3) it works for the voters not your fellow fat cats. Romney didn’t do that.
== In fact, its worse because of higher teen unemployment.
Not only is our state in time worse now than in 1965 or 1973, but we are headed in the wrong direction. We have
- Higher teen unemployment rates for black, Hispanic and whites today than in 1965.
- We have worse school conditions it appears, not based on stats from a data source, just perception.
- The good education in Ph.D. programs in math and science and engineering is for people not in the US at time of application.
Thus every statistic predicts it will get worse for unskilled and skilled jobs. Americans are not getting either one. They are losing out now and its getting worse because kids are employed at lower rates and are not getting the good education in science and engineering and math. Thus the trend will continue down.
We have to stop immigration, legal and illegal, and student visas for a long time to get back to 1965. Remember, what we were doing in 1965 is what got us here. So we have to have less immigration now than in 1965 to get back to 1965 and less than in 1965 to keep from going down. So we need to be close to zero immigration, e.g. 25,000 per year total.
In summary, we need to see what Romney failed to do and fix that before blaming the people who voted for McCain. We can’t learn from our mistakes if we don’t recognize them. We can’t fix them if we don’t diagnose them. Romney needs to diagnose his own mistakes just like he needs to diagnose the economy’s problem for non Romney people. He has failed to do both. So he lost.
McCain is naturally the person of the median wage and not Romney. Romney starts out as the fat cat for the fat cats. When he stressed immigration and Ph.D.’s and jobs for India and China not Americans at American schools he said he was still a fat cat for fat cats. This is what made Harvard MBA Romney rich and funds his campaign.
The money he spends just proves he made his money while the rest of us stood still. He has no program to change that. So people didn’t vote for him. They voted for McCain whom they believe, right or wrong, will understand that median wages are the same as in 1973 and 74/67 percent of men are in the labor force now compared to 80/80 in 1965. Of course, McCain married wealth and advocates the same immigration that is the problem. But unless Romney spells out the situation, and the graphs and numbers and the fix, McCain will seem the man of the people because he was a POW in Vietnam.
The election came down to McCain was the guy to help median wages rise and men get jobs because he was a POW. Romney said the economy needed to give away the Ph.D. fellowships to India and China and give them the know how and jobs. That is the Wall Street Silicon Valley VC mantra that got us here. People voted no to that. If Romney is so smart, they said, let him figure it out.
==
Romney Plan
- Americans graduate from college with liberal arts degree and 100,000 in debt.
- Students from India and China get living expenses and free tuition and health care for their families and a visa and no debt when they get their Ph.D.
- Microsoft hires the Indian and Chinese Ph.D.’s ahead of Americans who have only an undergrad degree.
Why should Americans vote for this Romney Plan? This is the university, Wall Street, Silicon Valley VC fat cat plan. This is why we have median wages the same as in 1973 for men even though productivity doubled. This is why fewer men have jobs today as a percentage than in 1965, with teens especially hard hit. That means it will get worse from here not better.
Romney’s plan is still substitute for Americans using immigrants, outsourcing and factory and industrial relocation and know-how transfer. Its still a plan for him and his fat cats to get rich. In this race, Romney is the fat cat and John McCain the guy who spent 5 years in the Hanoi Hilton. That can’t be changed unless Romney says no to Wall Street profiteering by immigration and know-how transfer.
Because Romney made his money from c. 1975 when he got his Harvard MBA to the 1990′s and then since in the stock market he is the one who owns that men’s median wages are the same as in 1973. Romney owns that men’s labor force participation rate is 74/67 now v. 80/80 in 1965. Romney owns that teen unemployment is higher.
Romney owns that Indians and Chinese are in Ph.D. programs all expense paid while Americans get undergrad degrees with 100,000 in debt. Romney owns that college kids fear being out of work with that debt so they have to take whatever job they get on whatever terms are offered. Romney owns the fear because he profited from it and helped fund the politicians who made it and he has been one.
Romney owns all of that because he has the 250 million made from it happening by his work as a VC and management consultant and HBS MBA/JD. Romney owns all that so he has to fix it by reversing all the things that caused it, immigration, student visas, outsourcing, know-how transfer, cheap and unfair imports, etc.