Idle Thoughts

Showing posts with label Wal-Mart. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Wal-Mart. Show all posts

11.01.2010

Further Development of a New Progressive Rhetoric, In Response to an Ill-reasoned Chain Message

I was forwarded a chain email ─ I'm fairly certain I've received it before ─ a cursory search shows the cited figures date back to 2005 and the email made the digital rounds following Obama's inauguration in 2009. The version below has been updated to indict the current Congress and President Obama over the Health Care Reform Act.

The message is interesting for it's inconsistent logic per an argument that government is too expansive and taxes are too oppressive, but that government ought be run by the people operating the most expansive business in the nation and for profit.

The email begins by listing a series of impressive figures relating to Wal-Mart, which is an undeniably successful business ─ controlling a pseudo-monopoly, but not of any particular good or service, instead dominating the shopping experience of a certain financial class.

The message then points to various governmental agencies, indicating how long they've been in operation, then states "you had [so long] to get it right, and it is broke," mostly devoid of other facts. The USPS is mentioned, although that was cut off from tax-support in 1983. A false statistic is presented: $1 Trillion (which is roughly half the federal budget and which) is supposedly misappropriated for "The War On Poverty." The only way to arrive at those figures, is to include SS and Medicare/Medicaid, while ignoring almost 30 years of legislation which reduced and fundamentally changed how "Welfare" type/related entitlements function in the US.