July 30, 2011
Poverty Discussion Focuses on "Them," Not "Us"
Victor Davis Hanson makes an excellent point:
Instead [of descriptions of modern "poverty" and examinations of whether government spending works], we hear the rhetoric of Dickensian poverty, usually in terms of relative rather than absolute want, as in the president's constant referencing of "corporate jets" for "millionaires and billionaires" rather than any statistics about average American access to a big-screen TVs, serviceable automobiles, or personal computers. The president made this clear when, during the campaign, he rejected any idea in cuts in capital-gains taxes even if it should lead to greater national and collective wealth, "fairness," he said, being the only issue. (I supposed that meant something like "it does not matter whether I am better off if you are way better off.") And completely absent in the current debate of who gets more and who pays more is any adult discussion over the causes of being less well off than someone else, and whether such criteria can always be addressed and remedied by more government money.
The liberal left continues to demonize the "rich". The" rich" are upper middle class (and up). You know them...they create jobs and pay taxes. Ever hear of a poor person creating a job? Oops..forgot the poor create jobs for the entitlement industry which the "rich" pay for. There is a war going on. The battle pits the producers versus the ever growing class of non-producers (e.g. the 99 wks. of unemployment under the table food stamp crowd). We are increasingly outnumbered and Lord Hussein is against us.
Posted by: ANTHONY at July 30, 2011 6:20 PMLet's keep some perspective here. The average poor person in the United States has an apartment or house, a car, heat, electricity, refrigeration, a stove, air conditioning, a cell phone with texting, washer/dryer or laundromat access, free education, television with cable, a computer with internet access, and more food than they know what to do with.
But progressives will tell you that because a rich person somewhere has a yacht, none of this matters.
Posted by: Dan at July 31, 2011 8:20 AMOh, the $ to create jobs is there - look at the record corporate profits. Americans are basically being told by the corporate class: Vote Obama out of office, and those jobs will be released for you. Re-elect him, and we will ensure your pain continues.
BTW, read the ProJo story today about the payday loan companies and their lobbyists killing legislation to put reasonable limits on them? And we all thought unions owned the General Assembly.
Bella - Why should a business "create" a job if they clearly don't need to and are making "record profits"? It's a rhetorical question from my perspective, but you might personally benefit by trying to answer it.
I think you're in need of an education as to whom the "corporate class" makes the biggest donations. You can start with the Obama and Hillary 2008 donor lists.
Posted by: Dan at July 31, 2011 7:58 PM"the president's constant referencing of "corporate jets" for "millionaires and billionaires""
Seriously, I've never seen a proposed budget item that was so blatantly political and substantively unhelpful.
Posted by: Monique at July 31, 2011 11:07 PM