Here's a video of Romney in his early years at Bain, explaining his purpose in acquiring companies was to "harvest them at significant profit."
No one should be surprised. After all, Bain Capital wasn't in the business of creating jobs. It was in the business of creating profits.
The two goals aren't at all the same -- as Americans whose jobs have been eliminated or whose wages and benefits have been cut know all too well.
For years, higher corporate profits have come at the expense of fewer jobs and lower wages. Business leaders and financiers have been "harvesting" like mad, leaving most Americans behind in the dirt.
Romney's main selling point to voters is his so-called "business experience." Yet America can't afford this sort of "business experience" in the White House.
To the contrary, we need someone who doesn't see the economy as profits to be harvested, but as people who need more and better jobs.
In 2012 that person is Barack Obama, not Mitt Romney.
ROBERT B. REICH, Chancellor's Professor of Public Policy at the University of California at Berkeley, was Secretary of Labor in the Clinton administration. Time Magazine named him one of the ten most effective cabinet secretaries of the last century. He has written thirteen books, including the best sellers "Aftershock" and "The Work of Nations." His latest is an e-book, "Beyond Outrage," now available in paperback. He is also a founding editor of the American Prospect magazine and chairman of Common Cause.