Word of the Week: to “downromney”

downromney:  a (very) transitive verb.

[etymology:  From down- (as in downsize; also as in Down’s syndrome,  which anyone who would seriously vote for this guy  must be suffering from) + Mitt Romney, an early 21^st-century corporate raider] :  to seize a healthy company using wads of borrowed cash, somehow making the victim rather than the raider responsible for the resultant debt; debt-service subsequently bankrupts the company and the workers are fired.
Note:  This maneuver differs from the traditional ‘downsizing’ in that, in that case, management at least made a show of shedding crocodile tears over the workers thrown out the door;  whereas when workers get downromneyed, they are given to understand that they are themselves to blame for their miserable fate, and that the crushing of the working class is part of a historical process of “Creative Destruction”, in which they should feel honored to be permitted to play a part.)

THIS IS NOT A CAPTION (since the cartoon itself already has two)

Bonus fun !
Test your Downromney IQ !
Take this simple quiz:  http://www.romneygekko.com/quiz/

[Update 4 January 2012]

It turns out that the threat may extend beyond private-sector potential takeover targets.

A friend who teaches at a public high school (a Christian, a social conservative, and the holder of a doctorate), writes that he is himself worried about the possibility of being downromneyed -- his union protection being a frail reed  in the face of relentless reactionary attack :

What I'm concerned about is that within two years education has evolved to find a way to get rid of well paid people like me and my wife and replaced us with mere functionaries that take attendance while kids supposedly teach themselves online. That's seriously where it may be headed--and fast. And I think that the politicians who are calling for educational reform are already poised and invested in the companies that will pop up over night to provide this online "instruction" in place of unionized teachers.

So, I will keep this job as long as I can. But I can't not be looking around frantically at the same time, because if Romney is elected president, this will happen in months, not decades.

We’ve heard murmurings of this extraordinarily ill-advised idea of replacing classroom teaching with remote-access digitized solipsism.  It essentially gives up on the idea of community, socialization, or the Social Contract.  And yes, it’s being driven by entrepreneurs and their procurement-department enablers.

[Breaking update here.]

[Update 5 January 2012]

Remarkably, such humorous-polemical neologistic proposals can succeed wildly.   Just Google “santorum”.  You will not believe what tops the list:

http://spreadingsantorum.com/

Try it yourself.

A well-researched account of this escapade may be consulted here:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Campaign_for_%22santorum%22_neologism

“Busy, busy, busy,” as Bokonon used to say …

[Update 9 Jan 2012]

Romney: ‘I like being able to fire people who provide services to me’

In fact, it gives him a warm feeling all over.

Which side are you on ??

[Update 12 Jan 2012]  We're having fun here... but to be fair :
Here's a well-written and more balanced account of all this:
http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-private-equity-20120112,0,2710198,print.story

Just so you know -- We do enjoy our satire on this site, but no we do not literally believe that Mittney “Mitt” Romney is actually, zoologically, taxonomically  a blood-sucking maggot.  That was simply a figure of  speech -- a simile, if you like.  In point of fact,  Willard “My Name is Not Willard” Romney  is not  strictly speaking  a maggot of any description, neither blood-sucking nor pus-licking.  For one thing a maggot (as all of you know who paid attention in biology class) is a larva of the order Diptera;  whereas Mitt “Willard” Romney is, quite definitely, a carnivore.   (Order Carnivora.)

[Update 15 Jan 2012]
Some quite interesting and damning testimony from an unexpected source -- a fellow Wall Street moneyman:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/when-romney-ran-bain-capital-his-word-was-not-his-bond/2012/01/12/gIQACvQxwP_print.html

[Update 26 Feb 2012] Labor-baiter:
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-romney-labor-20120226,0,7725322.story