Distracted Not Duped

This is a great post I found at Le Colonel Chabert that demonstrates once again how the media is responsible for distracting America from the issues that matter most.

I mentioned elsewhere once the ill-conceived pr campaign the NY State chamber of commerce ran very briefly some years ago. They had an ad on television boasting of the rate of exploitation in NY State. It said "NY workers produce five dollars for every dollar they are paid" or something like this. People were really annoyed: "Wait, you mean every time I make a dollar, the company makes five dollars?" "Four." "For what I did they make five dollars and give me one." "Right." "So there are a hundred of us, we each make a dollar every five minutes, and the boss make four hundred dollars every five minutes?" "Right." Capital schmapital, risk shmisk, that is not fair! The ads disappeared in three days.

This is managed simply with spin. The biznews doesn't lie about this but it looks at it from a slightly different angle. Well, somebody else would settle for fifty cents every five minutes! In Haiti they'd work for fifty cents a day! The main tactic is simply to tell all the stories from the shareholder's point of view.

Ah ha! So, that's why the economy is so lousy when they describe it as rosey!

On a bizchat programme on CNBC last year, the garrulous hosts went silent when a guest investment analyst accidentally mentioned that people with either a half a million dollars or more in the bank or an income of at least $150k yearly made up 3% of the US population. They stared.

You mean 30%, one said, quietly, practically holding his breath.

The guest reiterated: three.

The hosts looked at eachother. There was a pause. It was clear they really were very surprised, mouths hanging open. Some flash of something rare and human moved across their faces. As if to say, shit, everyone's living on less than that? That's not right!

But, that's exactly what's happening! And it's no coincidence--the rich are feeding off the poor.