Rhetoric bothers me. It becomes a matter of stimulus and response...with no thinking in between. I suppose the right would say that the left has rhetoric as well, but it seems to me that if our rhetoric creates a response (voting), at least the ideas and policies are in the best interest of those buying the rhetoric. The right's rhetoric is designed to convince the 99% that up is down and down is up...and you are an idiot if you publicly state otherwise. I have a special beef with the right's meme "you should get to keep more of your money" when discussing taxation
Here's my beef. The middle class "keeps" very little money. As Mitt Romney spreads his cash around in off-shore tax havens looking for creative ways to "keep" his money, the rest of us just get to use it for a little while. He seems to have vaccuumed the money out of the middle class into his personal coffers. Those dollars in his pocket sit somewhere, not really used by anyone. All of those jobs that were eliminated...all of the assets destroyed in bankruptcy...that money was being "used" by Americans. As George Bailey would say, they were "working and paying and living and dying" in the United States. You can't eat money, or use it as shelter. We spend it.
Let's face it....the most successful middle-class person accumulates enough money to last them through their life. Rarely, there's a small nest egg that can be left to the kids, but mostly the money gets used. Isn't it the "use" of money that is the economic engine of this country? Even if we define the middle class as $30,000 to $300,000, the money gets spent on food, clothing, houses, cars, and entertainment. The choices might look different based on income, but that money gets used.
So Mitt invests his money abroad, probably in the same manner that he did at Bain...taking the cash that he "kept" in the past and exploiting businesses elsewhere in the world. There are always places where wages are lower and he can "fix" companies by "lowering their costs." I guess now he's syphoning more money to "keep" from other parts of the world.
To the middle class people who buy the Republican's line "you should get to keep more of your money," stop and think for a minute. Mitt and his buddies will get to keep more. They'll use it to accumulate more. But, will you? It may not have been your job that was eliminated that enabled Mitt to "keep" a hundred million bucks in one of his Bain deals, but it could have been. If we go further down this road of economic disparity, it will be your son or daughter or parent or cousin or spouse who contributes to Mitt's fortune. The Shock Doctrine is most assuredly at work. The rich (job evolvers not creators...changing good paying middle class jobs to lower paying jobs here or abroad) easily "shed" millions of jobs in 2008 when no one was sure if the banks would survive. That's why we had a huge recession...nobody was "using" any money. But, the Republicans know how to never let an opportunity pass them by....it's all those overpaid teachers and government workers that are to blame! We need to stop wasting money! It's irresponsible! Vote for them and they'll get rid of those greedy unions! (that's what we needed - some new rhetoric!)
Our challenge is to interject reason between the Republican's stimulus (rhetoric) and response (voting). It's hard to compete with the gay marriage, birth control, and religious freedom noise, but that is the task at hand. The ONLY thing that matters is getting more money moving through the economy. It's not redistribution of wealth...because we don't get to keep it. We just buy more stuff, which ultimately makes businesses more profitable (at least the ones that make stuff or serve people). Now, THAT's the kind of business that is, and will be the backbone of this country. We can live without those job evolvers....
End of rant.