Neo Cons

It’s become increasingly common for Republican Congresspersons lately to refer to the obscenely wealthy as “job creators” in their quest to deflect the burden for government spending onto the poor and the middle class instead of those who can actually afford it without giving up a meal. Since recent history shows that cutting taxes for the rich didn’t prevent the high unemployment and other economic problems the US is currently experiencing, the relationship they’re trying to draw is pretty unreasonable–if there’s a correlation at all, it seems more likely to me that the tax cuts, as well as other giveaways to corporations (such as various deregulations), probably caused the recession, and continuing that trend is bound not to help.

This cartoon compares this blatant economic trickery to the “shell game” or cup-and-ball routine, both of which being sleight-of-hand used for centuries to con desperate or unsuspecting dupes out of money by presenting them with what appears to be a simple gambling game which is in fact impossible to win. The crowds surrounding a victim in this con are usually composed of shills or “muscle” whose job it is to either make the game appear to be winnable, keep the victim from leaving, or watch out for police (although the cop in this cartoon doesn’t really seem to be all that effective at protecting the public from these crooks, eh?). Another well-known form of the same basic trick is the Three-card Monte.

2 Responses to “Neo Cons”

By » Jonathan (August 15th, 2011 at 9:20 pm)

Hi, first of all, great artwork. I’m becoming a fan of editorial cartoons and their ability to connect people emotionally.

We probably have different political views, but I would like to ask your opinion on something you brought up in the caption. Do you think it is possible that the recession was caused by government over-spending? Or even over-spending in general?

I think the majority of business people are rich because they are good at economics, and would never try to spend or hire their way out of a recession. The government borrows something like 40% of every dollar it spends. In my opinion, our economic system is bound to fail when it is that outrageously unbalanced.