Thanks to BlueTexasDem, I stumbled upon an interesting article from the conservative blog Red State, with the author scratching his head and trying to figure out just what went wrong. Unfortunately, he has some basic misconceptions which seem to be shared by a common slice of the population. This segment of the population is influenced by Fox News (and to some extent Rush Limbaugh). The trickle down theory certainly works, but in meme spreading, and not dollar spreading.
More below the squiggly thingamabob...
This conservative blog writer has accepted several Fox News Memes (let's coin the term feme for it) which have been particularly effective as of late given the recent blow to the economy a la Bush II. Blaming the state of our economy and the reasons why people voted on the unions, for their posh lifestyle and bloated incomes and a significant portion of the population's dependence on government handouts, is misguided. There is another class of people, who have bloated incomes whose fortunes wax and wane with government handouts, that nicely fit into the blogger's model of rage.
But that's not in line with the feme. The feme that was constructed by that second, very tiny slice of the population that has a vested interest in deflecting the rage on to others.
How do we get bloggers such as this to take a step back and look at the bigger picture? Narrowly focusing on a segment of the population, or selectively using facts and statistics to construct macro economic plans is a cancer at the heart of any policy formation. The proverbial, 'Think globally, act locally" rather than the conservative's "Think locally, act globally."
Let's examine New York City's problems and then raise Phoenix Arizona's foundation by 18 feet. Action was taken, and plenty of jobs were created, congratulations were spread as people's backs were patted. A narrow data set was used as a model for progress.
Silly example, right? Congratulations, you have taken your first step backward as you begin to see the bigger picture.