The Pinocchio Factor and our true economy
Are you better off now than you were four years ago?
Despite all the backslapping and grandiose braggadocio of this administration about how great the economy is growing, the cold, hard facts boom through when you look at the lack of confidence among the working masses.
This lack of confidence and practical assessment of the economy is reflected in a recent survey by Bankrate, a consumer financial services company based in New York City. According to the survey, more than 25 percent of all Americans are shelving plans for a summer vacation this year, and another 22 percent have not yet decided if they will get away or be forced to stay home for a backyard vacation.
Why? They simply can’t afford it.
Things like rent, mortgages, food, health expenses, and other vital needs already have them stretched to their financial limits — because after all, as Bill Clinton said, “It’s the economy, stupid!”
But what about all this talk about a booming economy, job growth, and market surges? The working stiffs just aren’t buying into it.
You see, if your income ranks in the upper 10 percent of U.S. households, you are golden. The economic funny business instituted by this administration was geared to help you.
If you are an investor, you’re looking at a hand of aces, because that is where the economic growth has occurred.
But if you are a blue-collar worker digging in the trenches to build up that cash flow for your employer, you are out of luck.
All of that “trickle down” stuff, as George Bush said when facing down Ronald Reagan, is voodoo economics, and the little guy is not the one reaping the benefits of all his hard work.
That business about job growth? The best you can do with that is spread it in the garden and watch the flowers grow. The overwhelming majority of new jobs are low-paying, thanks to union busting and the corporate mindset that places money in the wallets of the fat cats instead of the people actually earning the higher profits.
It’s how the system works with a Republican administration, after all.
That’s how they roll, looking after their own instead of rewarding an honest day’s work with an honest day’s wage. Oh, yeah, wages may have bumped a little, but they are still below the 4.2 percent average growth just before the 2001 recession.
And how was your tax return this year?
The new tax structure played hell with tax returns with some people getting fleeced while others came out on top.
Guess who did best? Yeah. You’ve got it.
Then why, dear God, the continued solidarity of this administration’s base?
It’s called the illusory effect, a phenomena that is rooted in study after study about how a lie, repeated often enough, becomes an accepted truth, despite all reason and evidence to the contrary. Or, as I call it, the Pinocchio Factor — and we all know who is pulling this puppet’s strings.
The illusory effect has had huge impact on the American public, with most modern-day roots planted in the Ronald Reagan administration.
It was a clever lift from Nazi propagandist Joseph Goebbels, who used the principle to great advantage in creating a fervor that whipped the people into a frenzy in pre-war Germany.
It is fanning the flames of populism today in the United States, where so many are falling for this move toward so-called nationalist pride and calling for isolationism from the global community. It is creating massive fear of our southern border being overrun by rapists, drug dealers, killers, and criminals of every stripe invading with the intent of destroying the United States or stealing such high-tech jobs like working California’s strawberry fields. It is the impetus for the rising wave of distrust in our agreements and partnerships around the world.
And it is destroying the United States. But it’s working, and our economy is booming and growing faster than in our history, or so the lies go.
If anything is growing at record pace, it is the preponderance of lies. Since taking office, the president has told nearly 10,000 lies in public, verified by fact-checkers at The New York Times who have enumerated his whoppers.
Of course, his whole political career was built on a foundation of his lie about the birthplace of Barack Obama.
We all know how numbers can and have been manipulated by politicians. Numbers don’t lie, but people who use them do, and you could make just about anything you want to out of a gaggle of digits.
So when you see economic news, the plain numbers may be spot on but manipulated to mislead, to not tell the entire story.
Ty Cobb, the grisly outfielder who played for the Detroit Tigers most of his professional career, failed at the plate 63.4 percent of the time. But Cobb is regarded as the greatest hitter in baseball history with a lifetime batting average of .366.
Yes, the raw numbers may show economic growth, more jobs, whatever, but what’s the real story? More than 25 percent of all Americans have already decided that they will not go away for vacation this summer, and 22 percent more are contemplating staying home because they cannot afford a vacation.
That is a lack of confidence in the economy and what it was supposed to do for them.
That is the reality that the priority of having a roof over their heads and food in their bellies is more important than racking up credit card debt or spending money earmarked for other bills.
This is a true indicator of the economy, not some trumped-up manipulation.
So the question you must ask yourself after looking at those numbers and listening to the crowing is this: Are you better off now than you were four years ago?
Do you have better health care? Do you have more disposable income? Is it easier to pay your bills? Do you feel secure in your job? Have you put off major purchases, whether for a new house or a car?
I am willing to bet the answer is a resounding no, because after all is said and done, it still is all about the economy and how it impacts the working women and men, not some jacked-up manipulation of the numbers.
Peace.
The viewpoints expressed above are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of The Independent.
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