YOU CAN MAKE UP YOUR OWN MIND, IT STILL BEING A FREE COUNTRY

An old army buddy sent me this link to a chart that, in my opinion, is a clever propaganda piece designed to persuade common, everyday people to the progressive socialist agenda.

John K.

Here is my old army buddy's email to me, along with the link:

There is a ‘talking point’ going around about how Obama and the current administration is pushing a “socialist” agenda and trying to effect “wealth redistribution”. Perhaps a dose of reality would enlighten us – here’s the numbers: 

Have a look at this very effective visual demonstration.
http://mashable.com/2013/03/02/wealth-inequality/


And here is my personal reaction to the 'chart' my buddy sent me:

Obama is pushing a socialist agenda and is redistributing wealth. Starting backwards from conclusion to premise, it is possible to build a chart that proves just about anything. This is one of the weaknesses of scientific methodology, done poorly. Would you like to see a chart "developed by the AMA" that shows that a greater percentage of people die inside hospitals than in restaurants or shopping malls? From the numbers, the stunned observer might well conclude hospitals are death camps. And, if I were a stout believer in the Anti-Hospital League, I could certainly build some persuasive arguments, using examples of bad doctors, nurses and diseases people can only get in hospitals. 

But back to the chart at hand: In my opinion, the dose of reality to keep one's eye on is not in these dummied up numbers presented as developed by the obiquitious Harvard professor... but in the results of the redistribution programs so far put in place by the current administration. Allow me for your bemused consideration to add a few factors to the professor's chart: Let's add the factor of productivity: In other words, if a person is of working age and not working, they should not be counted. And, let's blend in welfare. If a person is on welfare they should tip the scale by a factor of two, because they are actually taking away from the productivity of the whole. If a person sluffs off on a job and is paid more than they are worth, if a worker feather-beds, that is, is protected by a union in a non-productive, unnecessary or outdated position, that should be a negative. People who chose not to work to maintain their personal 'way of living' also have to be considered. Poets in attics, streetcorner beggars, the fellow playing the banjo outside WalMart, the modern monk who choses to isolate him or herself. And where are we to put the ill, the maimed, those who cannot work? If we are doing a non-moral map of our economy, we can't just lump them as 'against' the folks at the top of the chart. And what about the huge, enormous hidden economy, estimated by obiquitous Harvard professors citing other evils of our society as at least 15 to 20 percent of all incomes that go unreported...after all, if we are slapping the wealthy for tax loopholes how about Harvey next door who didn't report that car he won at the church raffle or Jose the gardener and Wille the tree trimmer who report nothing? How about thee and me, fellow middle-income American?

Wow. The chart developed by a relatively unknown ponderer living in Southern California has all the grace and beauty of the one developed at Harvard...and yet it looks stunningly different. You, being a fair and openminded person, have to ask yourself, "How can this be?"