Romney discusses Bain outsourcing and Chinese working conditions

[JHB]

A video of Mitt at an unspecified event (wait-staffers can be seen bustling about around the small seated audience). Place, time, and audience are not identified, but it's clearly Mitt Romney talking.

Some thoughts:
1) The guard towers and fence were "to keep people out": And you just took the salesman's word on that? Mr. I'm-a-successful-businessman-look-at-how-much-money-I-made-but-don't-look-too-closely?

2) After Bain bought the factory, did you still work them for long hours at a pittance? Because you could have employed more people at better pay under better working conditions and still made a profit on the lower labor costs than the US jobs you said you weren't involved in outsourcing. Think of how many more people could have fulfilled their dreams of a marriage nest-egg that way! (It was a nest egg, not a dowry imposed on them, right?) But Bain would made slightly less profit that way. Do we even need to ask which route you chose?

3) As touched on above, I thought you said you weren't involved in outsourcing decisions? That those all came after you left?

4) Let me tell you, Mitt, 95% of your life and your Bain peoples' lives may seem "95% settled", but that sure as hell wasn't the case for the people whose livelihoods you took away and moved elsewhere so that you could make even more money. But oh, you're such nice people for wanting to help those young Chinese women, which not-so-coincidentally lined your pockets ever thicker, but barely hand-waved what that would do to the American work force. They and their interests were inconsequential to you.

And you used that as a sales point to your audience (at one of those private fundraisers?).

[Enrique]

1. Romney should go to Chicago

[mrJJ]

2. Unless it's verified..

This vid is VERY suspicious... I smell a dirty trick...

[Enrique]

4. the channel is fake

https://twitter.com/maddow/status/239150223082000385

YouTube account has nothing to do with me, the show, or MSNBC: http://is.gd/JxpAA6 Working with YouTube on getting it taken down.

But I dont see anything suspicious about the video. What do you see?

[JHB]

5. I've updated to remove the channel link...

...and clarify that it's not really hers, but unless it's a world-class impersonator it's still Romney talking to a private group.

There's nothing said that seems out of place, no "smoking guns". The video uploader used a misleading subject line but the line of justification for moving work to China sounds exactly like what we have heard from out-sourcing promoters for two decades.

2nd update: changed the link to a version that is not on the fake-Maddow channel.

Transcript:

"95% of life is set up for you if you were born in this country. And, I remember going to ah, uh, sorry just to bore you with stories.

When I was back in my private equity days, we went to China to buy a factory there. It employed about 20,000 people. And they were almost all young women between the ages of about 18 and 22 or 23. They were saving for potentially becoming married.

And they work in these huge factories, they made various uh, small appliances. And uh, as we were walking through this facility, seeing them work, the number of hours they
worked per day, the pitance they earned, living in dormitories with uh, with little bathrooms at the end of maybe 10, 10 room, rooms. And the rooms they have 12 girls per room.

Three bunk beds on top of each other. You've seen, you've seen them? (Oh...yeah, yeah!) And, and, and around this factory was a fence, a huge fence with barbed wire and
guard towers. And, and, we said gosh! I can't believe that you, you know, keep these girls in! They said, no, no, no. This is to keep other people from coming in.

Because people want so badly to come work in this factory that we have to keep them out. Or they will just come in here and start working and, and try and get compensated. So we, this is to keep people out. And they said, actually Chinese New Year as the girls go home, sometimes they decide they've saved enough money and they don't come back to the factory.

And he said, so, on the weekend after Chinese New Year there will be a line of people hundreds long, outside the factory, hoping that some girls haven't come back. And they can come to the factory. And, and so as we were experiencing this for the first time, going to see a factory like this in China some years ago.

The Bain Partner I was with turned to me and said, you know, 95% of life is settled if you are born in America. This is uh, this is an amazing land and what we have is unique and fortunately it is so special we are sharing it with the world."

[Enrique]

7. absolutely in line with his known love of China labor system

http://www.democraticunderground.com/1002446152

I got the chance after I lost to John McCain last time, to go over to -- that was the good part of losing -- I got to go to the Olympic Games in China. It's pretty impressive over there how quickly they can build things, how productive they are as a society. You should see their airport compared to our airports, their highways, their train systems. They're moving quickly in part because the regulators see their job as encouraging private people. It's amazing. The head of Coca-Cola said the business environment is friendlier in China than in America. And that's because of the regulators. That's because of government.

[mrJJ]

6. Vid distance compared to voice overlay

http://www.buzzfeed.com/nycsouthpaw/mysterious-video-appears-to-show-romneys-private

[Enrique]

8. I agree with Buzzfeed about the damaging part

talking about the U.S., he says

95% of life is set up for you if you were born in this country

If verified, this quote will be deadly.

[EC]

9. Hey, Mitt

I've got a bridge I'd like to sell ya....if he believed that tripe, he's not too smart after-all.

Hope this proves authentic..it'd be good to have his own words saying that our "country" starts everyone out at 95%.

[Sky Masterson]

10. I guess every small business that ever made it only built 5% of thier own business.

"95% of life is set up for you if you are born in this country". The man who is running against Pres. Obama's "You didn't build this" quote, Mitt Romney basically said that 95% of all of our lives is already set up for us here in America. I wonder who set up the "95%" that was already here for us before we were born?


Hey Romney, I run a small business and I built over 5% of it on my own!!!
This can be so shoved back in his face!

[Left Coast2020]

11. If this really him saying this, shouldn't he get nailed to the wall on this?

I mean CNN and MSNBC, or NYTimes would likely have a field day with this quote. This is who he is. Mr. Cheap, minimum wage, no benefits, part-time labor rommy. And the Obmama camp should run this too. It really does sound like him.