So the other day I was perusing the Twitter trying to be a cool kid. At the top of my page was the tweet you see above as a paid promotion. I decided to play along and click on the link and see what Zombie Reagan had to say about income inequality. I don't know why I clicked on the link. It was the same old claptrap we have heard from the right for years.
The title of the inked piece, "Here’s Why Liberal Talk About Income Inequality Is Just Talk: How Their Obsession Is Only Used For Show." So it is obviously an attack piece meant for the rabid conservative base. It did not take long to get to the first bit of red meat.
[I]s there any doubt that even if you are poor, it is far better to be poor in a free market democracy like the US instead of the old Soviet Union, Cuba, or Vietnam? Isn’t it interesting to see how, in more modern times, places like China experience tremendous economic growth through the embrace of capitalistic policies (the same that made America a superpower)?
I am pretty sure that being poor sucks no matter where you live or what system of government you live under, whether it is the former Soviet Union, modern Cuba, or the United States.
Please read below the fold for more on Zombie's Reagan's genius.
Of course Zombie Reagan would not be happy unless he called Liberal's hypocrites, and/ or idiots.
Liberals, like Barrack Obama, the Kennedys, and idiots like Michael Moore are wrong when they talk about income inequality. In fact, they’re not just wrong, they’re hypocrites. Obviously, if someone has truly rare skills and they work 60 hours a week, they deserve a higher income than someone who is uneducated and only works part-time at a menial job. Yet you do not see liberals like Obama or Al Gore or Bill Clinton giving back their millions of dollars or refusing to work for an ‘unequal’ salary or income level.
Now I did not know it made you a hypocrite if you stood up for the poor and made a healthy living at the same time. Not giving up all the money you have earned does not make you a hypocrite. If that were the case than no one could ever speak out for the poor. Am I supposed to give up my income and become poor because I speak out for social justice?
Of course it does not take long to get to the big zombie lie of the right.
Being a “poor” American is not nearly as bad as you might think. More than 80 percent of poor Americans have cell phones, televisions, and refrigerators. Most also own a motor vehicle and have more living space than the average European. On top of all this, immigrants from all over the world still want to come here for a chance at a better life. This would not be happening if “poor” Americans were living in squalor.
Sigh, I hate that one. Just because you have possessions does not mean you are not poor. Just because your apartment is bigger than one in Europe does not make you not poor, it means you live in the United States where builders tend to build living spaces larger than they do in Europe. If you are poor are you supposed to ask your landlord to subdivide your apartment because it is larger than one in a European country? Really?
The author of this piece is doing nothing more than spouting off the same talking points that right-wing pundits have been spouting off since before I was born. If someone loses their job or goes through some hardship that causes poverty no one comes around and takes their TV, car, cellphone, and refrigerator away. You are going to continue to use them. If you are born into poverty it is likely you are driving an old beater car that gets crappy gas mileage, and use a refrigerator that is old and not as energy efficient as newer models. So living on poverty puts you even further behind the eight ball.
What Zombie Reagan is missing in this post is what those of us on the left really want. We want corporations to pay their fair share, we want the rich to pay their fair share. We want fairness. That is it. Every kid should receive a high quality public education. No child, no adult, should go hungry. That is not communism, that is not hypocrisy, it is basic human decency.