Romney the parasite

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"We could call it Romnesia", writes George Monbiot in The Guardian "the ability of the very rich to forget the context in which they made their money. To forget their education, inheritance, family networks, contacts and introductions."

Sounding a similar note to President Obama, who said in July, to the outrage of outraged Repuiblican commentators, "If you've got a business - you didn't build that", Monbiot argues that the vital Republican narrative of the self-made man is simply "bunkum".

"Rich lists are stuffed with people who either inherited their money or who made it through rent-seeking activities: by means other than innovation and productive effort. They're a catalogue of speculators, property barons, dukes, IT monopolists, loan sharks, bank chiefs, oil sheikhs, mining magnates, oligarchs and chief executives paid out of all proportion to any value they generate. Looters, in short."