Clay Bennett for August 19, 2013

Bennett is the most jealous cartoonist I have ever read.

I only come here to laugh at his total stupidity.

Tell me a time in the history of our world, when the 1% didn’t control the other 99%.

Making money? No.Equating money to free speech? Yes.

You never heard of Citizens United?It was in the news the last couple of years.

I have been expecting a cartoon about how President Obama is putting solar panels on the White House.Remember Carter put solar panels up in 1979 and St. Reagan removed them in 1986.

It is astonishing how comfortable Republicans/Fox “news” viewers are with how unevenly wealth is distributed in this country.=They seem to have only two answers: Give even more tax breaks to the already wealthy. And if those people who are born into poverty would just work hard enough, they’d be just as rich as Romney.=Oh, and of course express hatred of Obama — that’s mandatory for them if they take part in any discussion.

Clay nails it, again, but sadly all parties, including Demos, Libertarians, and even independents are also more strongly influenced by $$ than the people. Well, you know, those “citizens united persons” do count more than those with blood flowing in their veins.

Ask a rich person to mow your lawn or build your next widget.

“As one digs deeper into the national character of the Americans, one sees that they have sought the value of everything in this world only in the answer to this single question: how much money will it bring in?”Letter to Ernest de Chabrol, 9 June 1831 Tocqueville Reader, p. 41“I know of no country, indeed, where the love of money has taken stronger hold on the affections of men, and where the profounder contempt is expressed for the theory of the permanent equality of property.”Chapter III, Part I, Democracy in AmericaAlexis de Tocqueville

“George Washington was obsessed with wealth and position as a younger man, but fate and his strong sense of duty seemed transform him. He later refused pay to run the Continental Army. This also reminds me of the Gallup Happiness Poll. Poor Haitians are happier than Americans.”Washington could easily afford to General for free. Many soldiers were discharged after the war, but never received pay either. A bunch of those soldiers returned home to find they were being sued by their not so patriotic creditors. Shay’s Rebellion was the biggest of the outbursts by angry veterans who were never paid for their service. Anyone who wants to jump in & defend Washington can do so. He wasn’t the one responsible for figuring out how to pay the soldiers’ their wages, but history doesn’t make him seem like he had any sympathy for his former men at the time.Your link doesn’t work for me, but I’m guessing this is what you saw?http://www.gallup.com/poll/159254/latin-americans-positive-world.aspxHaitians rank pretty low in happiness according to this one. Latin Americans rank happiest, despite having relatively low incomes.

And, money does in fact correlate to happiness:

“When you need a job, only ask a poor person for one so you can feel good about yourself.”Who do you think keeps Wal-Mart, McDonald’s, AT&T, Proctor & Gamble and the pretty much the rest of the Dow Jones in business? Investors or consumers?Rich people do not spend their extra income, but poor people do. If you want to boost the economy, put money in the pockets of the working class.

If you want to look at wealth inequality you need look no further than the Democratic party that Clay worships. Not that it is just them, but how many of these politicians have stood up and given up part of thier $170,000 salary because it wasn’t fair.How many of them have willingly given up part of their pension that we out in the real world will pay for, because we don’t have one. Also, look back to President Clinton. In order to say he had a phony surplus, he committed all social security revenues to the annual deficit, something that many middle and lower income people depend on, instead of committing his own Presidential pension.

“Rich people’s money does not sit idle. It is invested. This grows the economy, and puts people to work.”Money is invested, but not necessarily in our economy, nor necessarily in areas that create many new jobs.Money is invested wherever there is a good opportunity for growth. Once in a while someone genuinely creates a newfangled business, but if consumer demand isn’t there because people have no money to spend, the best ideas will struggle.Our problem is weak demand because of private debt overhang.

“Easy now, I think you just put Uncle Joe into hyperventilation he was planning on buying old peoples mattresses to finance his retirement.”Close- I hear thar’s gold in them thar storage units. That’s just in case my Chinese factories don’t pan out.