Smoke and Mirrors

BY MICHAEL REISIG –

I was speaking with a liberal friend the other day and he remarked, “Well, now that the economy is recovering perhaps things will begin to get better all the way around.” My friend is a prime example of the new liberal American – trained to believe what he hears, not what he sees.

Our government and our media (which is now mostly controlled by the government) has moved from the process of providing information, to the technique of delivering propaganda. The incredibly sad part is our society’s lack of desire to discern between the two.

It’s all smoke and mirrors, and our president has proven to be a master magician. But as of late he has given up even trying to hide his slight of hand techniques. He just does what he wants and a lapdog press somehow makes it okay.

The latest in the magic act is telling us “the economy grew at a 4% annualized rate in the second quarter, and that employment growth continues to exceed 200,000 new jobs monthly, But the truth is, when the president took a chance and had his unemployment czar blatantly manipulate the unemployment figures the night before the last presidential election (and no one did a thing), he realized he no longer had to play by the rules, and at that moment, the nation traded democracy for a benign dictatorship (that is becoming less benign all the time.)

Since then, every bit of information America gets is contrived. Obama and his minions are carefully manipulating the information used to calculate the strength of the economy and the jobs picture.  He and his press continue to disregard the fact that our economy is gaining more low-wage, part-time jobs, and continually losing higher-wage, full-time jobs. They refuse to mention the millions of unemployed who have given up trying to find work and have simply become “wards of the state.”

The president wants us to believe everything is just peachy keen. But I have to ask you – liberal and conservative – does it really feel peachy keen to you? Do you realize that for many standard living items, from a fast food burger to a pound of coffee you’re paying nearly twice what you were just four years ago? I went looking at new cars the other day. Did you know that the miles per gallon on a new Ford Escort is exactly the same as it was on the same car 10 years ago? Consider that for a moment, and ask yourself if we’re not being taken to the cleaners by someone.

The latest reports show that we have 146 million people in the American workforce, and 157 million receiving welfare benefits.

The unemployment rate (calculated by intimidation, manipulation, and outright lies) is in the 6% range. The actual unemployment rate — calculated in the fashion we used to use — is more than double that. All the while, personal incomes are shrinking, not rising, and the value of the dollar is plummeting around the world.

Academic research (not controlled by the president) tells us statistically, the middle class is smaller now than it was in the 1970s. Government spending is now one-quarter of the economy today; it was less than one-fifth just over a decade ago. Real inflation — the way the government used to track it before manipulating data became standard policy — is running as high as 10 percent. Another huge question you have to ask yourself is, if this economy is doing so wonderful, why isn’t the price of gold continuing to fall? (After the manipulated surge a while back, gold fell and has stayed about the same for the last two years.) I’ll tell you why, because the whole affair is smoke and mirrors. We have failed to create real jobs that will allow our economy to grow. All we’ve done is develop a handful of low-wage service sector jobs in an economy supported by monstrous government spending, while the Federal Reserve practices monetary manipulation that would have made Franklin Delano Roosevelt (or Castro) proud.

If you don’t believe any of this, ask yourself some simple questions: Why does a candy bar cost $1.50 now? Why has the cost of electricity almost doubled in the last four years? Why aren’t we all driving reasonably priced cars that get 75 miles per gallon? With all the oil reserves we have, why are we still paying nearly $4 a gallon for gas? If things are so peachy-keen, why are we spending billions of dollars a year in an attempt to keep minority-ridden, failing cities like Detroit, Atlanta, and Los Angeles out of more bankruptcies?

But our president tells us we have a “robust, growing economy. Everything is “peachy keen.”  I’ll ask you one more time. Does it feel “peachy-keen” to you?

The views and opinions expressed in this column do not necessarily reflect the views and opinions of the ownership and staff of The Polk County Pulse. Michael Reisig is a freelance writer and published author whose works are reproduced throughout the globe.

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