Ted Rall for July 30, 2014

Got to college or a trade school and after you graduate, they might hire you

Except the luxury goods makers will probably hire someone in China, not the US.

There is no permanent solution to poverty. There always has been and always will be rich and poor people under all types of governments, economic systems, etc. Some countries (like Canada and Singapore) are just better at hiding poverty from plain sight.

Yep, and here we are back where we started. Ten years go by and the same guy is back on the same corner still begging for cash. Only this time the guy has a PHD and a one million dollar student load debt! Can you help him out? Please??

Right on target, except for one thing; there are a lot of Democrats who are just as zealous in serving their rich masters. Alas, I don’t know how you could illustrate that in just a few letters or an image.

The random rich guy will also give bribes campaign contributions to the Congressman. And a ‘job’ as a lobbyist when he leaves Congress.

Note that “giving money” to the random rich guy is code for “not taking as much money from him as I usually do.” Also, I notice that the cartoon does not address the valid point that throwing money at poor people has never solved the problem of poverty – more often it creates a subculture of dependency among a significant percentage those who receive government benefits.

So, trickle-around then? Whatever you call it, we’ve had over three decades of decline in working class wages and lifestyles that proves it doesn’t work. Not for the rest of us, anyway.

jrmerm: “Political systems, not economic ones…”. Politics and economics are inextricably linked. Or are you going to claim that tax policy that punishes workers, rewards Wall Street gamblers, and favors giant corporations over small business, is not political? Or that the whole post-WWII policy of the U.S., using our military to expand the power of business, had nothing to do with economics? Or hell, _O_peration _I_raqi _L_iberation?