The Christian Science Monitor reports on Mitt Romney’s tax returns and it paints an interesting picture of what it’s like to be unemployed in contemporary America:

Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney paid about $3 million in federal income taxes in 2010, having earned more than seven times that — $21.7 million — from his investments and making him among the wealthiest of American taxpayers.

At the same time, Romney gave nearly $3 million to charity — about half of that amount to the Mormon Church — which helped lower his effective tax rate to a modest 14 percent, according to records his campaign released early Tuesday.

For 2011, he’ll pay about $3.2 million with an effective tax rate of about 15.4 percent, the campaign said.

I don’t think Romney has earned an actual paycheck since he left the governor’s corner office in Boston. He’s been a bum and a deadbeat since January 4, 2007. As for private sector work, other than some stuff he did for the Olympics (does that count?) he’s been a shiftless layabout since he left Bain Capital in 1999.

And, yet, he somehow manages to pocket in excess of $20 million a year for doing absolutely nothing productive. He’s just a parasite on society who goes around the country badmouthing people with actual jobs, like the president.

And the best part is that this freeloading loafer pays 15% on his “income” while hardworking people like Newt Gingrich pay 31%.

So, what does this idling shirker have to teach us about job creation? In Romney’s America, do we all get to sit around doing nothing while checks roll in? Who will be left to fix our cars or replace the seawater pump impeller on our yachts?

I kid, but really, not.