Can you tell me what working person actually votes for one of the pioneers of venture capital?  You know, the guys who walk in, buy up small companies, lay off the employees, then offer them their jobs back at less money with fewer benefits, then systemically milks the company for what it is worth then sells or shuts it down.  Can someone explain it to me?

A lot of times, people pick the person they hate least, not like most.  Maybe the Republicans of Nevada are less disturbed by a corporate scumbag than by a fanatical preacher or neocon warmonger.

Then again, Clinton is projected in Nevada as well.  Maybe they're just stupid.

Can you tell me what working person actually votes for one of the pioneers of venture capital?  You know, the guys who walk in, buy up small companies, lay off the employees, then offer them their jobs back at less money with fewer benefits, then systemically milks the company for what it is worth then sells or shuts it down.  Can someone explain it to me?


That ain't venture capital.  That's vulture capital. 

Venture capital is what you need when you've got a great new idea, and you're either gonna turn your $100,000/year startup into a $10M/year "real company" or go bankrupt.  A venture capitalist throws $1M your way and says "I've done this before, let me drive."  If your product is good (and you're lucky), he'll turn you into a $10M/year real company.  If your product sucks (or you're just unlucky), he'll drive it into the ditch.  A venture capitalist does this 10 times with the expectation that 9 out of 10 times, he's gonna lose his $1M, but the one company that works out makes up for the nine that fail.

As for vulture capital?  Gordon Gekko said it best in the 80s classic movie Wall Street:  He'd just done a leveraged buyout in a failing paper mill called Teldar Paper.  At the shareholders' meeting, he made the following speech.  Cromwell's the current CEO about to be tossed out on his keister, and Gekko's about to re-engineer the company by ... well, by either improving efficiencies, cutting wages, cutting waste, and doing it even if it means throwing a lot of workers out of work, or even by shutting the whole thing down, bulldozing the plants and selling the land to real estate developers -- whatever gives the shareholders the best return:

Well, I appreciate the opportunity you're giving me, Mr. Cromwell, as the single largest shareholder in Teldar Paper, to speak.

Well, ladies and gentlemen, we're not here to indulge in fantasy but in political and economic reality.  America - America has become a second-rate power. Its trade deficit and its fiscal deficit are at nightmare proportions. Now, in the days of the free market when our country was a top industrial power, there was accountability to the stockholder.  The Carnegies, the Mellons, the men that built this great industrial empire, made sure of it because it was their money at stake.  Today, management has no stake in the company!  All together, these men sitting up here own less than three percent of the company.  And where does Mr. Cromwell put his million-dollar salary?  Not in Teldar stock -- he owns less than one percent.  You own the company.  That's right, you, the stockholder.

And you are all being royally screwed over by these... these bureaucrats, with their luncheons, their hunting and fishing trips, their corporate jets and golden parachutes.

Greed, for lack of a better word, is good. Greed is right; greed works. Greed clarifies, cuts through, and captures the essence of the evolutionary spirit. Greed, in all of its forms, greed for life, for money, for love, knowledge... has marked the upward surge of mankind and greed - you mark my words - will not only save Teldar Paper, but that other malfunctioning corporation called the USA.  Thank you very much.

Not sure what that has to do with Romney, but there's your answer on the difference between venture capital (investing in new companies and expecting 90% of them to go belly-up) and vulture capital (investing in crappy/failing/lethargic dinosaur-type companies that are worth more than they'd otherwise appear to be worth -- as long as you're willing to kick over a few anthills in the process).

The Republicans don't get it.  The only answers they have for the woes at hand are more tax cuts for the rich, more perks for big corporations, more surveillance, and more war.  That just ain't gonna cut it.