Can I call Mitt Romney's pal Edward Conard an @sshole?

(Below) Edward Conard, Mitt Romney's pal from Bain Capital, thinks that "greed is good".

After reading the New York Times article called The Purpose of Spectacular Wealth, According to a Spectacularly Wealthy Guy by Adam Davidson, my head was about to explode. It's about Edward Conard, who was the managing director at Mitt Romney's Bain Capital from 1993 until 2007.

Go ahead, read it now...then remember, the article was published on May 1st -- International Workers' Day (also known as May Day).

Edward Conard was born in 1956 and grew up in a middle-class suburb of Detroit, just as Mitt Romney also grew up in a Detroit suburb. Romney's neighborhood was called Bloomfield Hills, and consistently ranks as one of the top five wealthiest cities in the United States.

But Edward Conard was the son of a kindergarten teacher and a Ford engineer, yet he managed to end up going to Harvard Business School, just like Mitt Romney. And just like Mitt Romney, Edward Conard retired from Bain Capital with hundreds of millions of dollars at the early age of 51; but his buddy Mitt Romney wants the rest of us to work until we're 70 before we can collect our meager Social Security checks, even though it's common knowledge that it's the RICH that's lives longer that everybody else.

If Edward Conard were born today, he might not be going to Harvard business school, even though both his parents had good union jobs. Corporate America has been busting labor unions since the height of their membership in the 1950s. The United Auto workers cut a deal to pay new employees half of what they once earned, and teachers are being laid off left and right -- their unions are always under attack by Romney's Republican thugs.

Everybody blames the unions for job losses, but those people (if they're lucky) are only making middle-class wages, just like firefighters, the police, and union steel workers do today. Just like autoworkers in Detroit did. Just like Edward Conard's daddy once did.

All the jobs today are in the service industry, and they pay under $10 an hour, probably good wages back in the 1960s and 70s, but not so today in 2012. Corporations are still outsourcing the good-paying domestic jobs for cheaper labor in places like China, India, and Mexico, enabling foreign workers to be the new consumers of their products. Wages have been stagnant for the past 30 years as the cost of living for low-paid workers has skyrocketed.

Even two incomes aren't enough anymore, and especially with a lack of job security these days, who knows when their job is next to go to Korea, Panama, Columbia, or Vietnam. The Republicans want to ease VISA restrictions so American corporations can import cheap engineers here, while millions of college grads remain unemployed. Edward Conard's daddy would have to worry about losing his job at Ford -- and his mom might also be laid off due to budget cuts by the Republicans to pay for tax breaks for the rich...for people like Mitt Romney and Edward Conard.

How much money does someone like Edward Conard, Mitt Romney, Bill Gates or the Walton's need? They never have enough. It's like an obsession or mental illness for them. They're insatiable. They hoard.

"Wealth is like sea-water; the more we drink, the thirstier we become; and the same is true of fame." - Schopenhauer

Instead of the top 1% giving money to charities for a tax deduction, why don't all these rich people just pay their employees a fair, honest, and living wage instead? Maybe a lot less people will need to rely on charities. Do the Waltons need more money when they pay their employees at Wal-Mart $8 a hour with no benefits? How many BILLIONS will be enough?

...and that's why we have to print money....low taxes on the rich, a growing population, and hoarding at the top...money isn't being circulated throughout the economy....pay us well and we'll buy things, pay us too little and we'll have to ask for food stamps.

When Edward Conard grew up his daddy was making a good living at that Ford plant, and with a wife bringing home a second income as a teacher was nice, because back then the divorce rates were much lower. I would guess that Edward Conard doesn't think that the cost of living has went up much since the 1950s, or that college tuition at Ivy league schools are for everybody, and don't require 20 years of student debt just because they earn the minimum wage of $7.25 an hour.

It must have been a very long time since Edward Conard had to worry about being fired from a job (and paying rent)...like Mitt Romney said he once did. (That was funny.)

Edward Conard mentioned nothing at all about paying workers a living wage in that New York Times piece, or that our tax rates are already historically low (capital gains taxes were taxed at 12.5% in 1921, when the rich got that huge tax break); and the top 1% has been making record profits these last few years while everybody else was being laid off and losing their homes.

People like Edward Conard don't live in the same economy (or country it seems) than the rest of us do. Trickle down economics doesn't work in the "real" economy...it was an utter failure, and today's economy is proof of that.

There was no run on the banks, what they hell was he talking about? Edward Conard is either delusional, ignorant, greedy, or insane...like most of his ilk in his income bracket.

He said, "The wealth concentrated at the top should be twice as large." Oh really? He would eliminate all capital gains taxes just so he and his ilk can be richer, then they would cut all government services to pay for this, and pay all working Americans $1 an hour to empty their garbage can and shine their shoes -- and then tell us all that this economy is "good" for us. He must be insane!

There's also piece about Edward Conard at Forbes that came out two days later after the Times article called Why Capitalism Works: Or, Edward Conard is Too Pessimistic, but I didn't read it....I've had enough of people like Mitt Romney and Edward Conard.

There's also an article at MSNBC called Former Bain honcho says economic inequality is OK

If Edward Conard publishes his new book, I fear he might get death threats and hate mail, although not from me, I've already said my piece.

Oh, I almost forgot... Edward Conard, you're an @asshole!