Pages

Friday, August 02, 2013

Cartoons: the frayed economy

If I were one to speak from a soap box, my topic would be income inequality, aka the Great Divergence.  President Obama spoke about this topic recently, saying:
[If we don't do something about income inequality,] "Racial tensions won’t get better; they may get worse, because people will feel as if they’ve got to compete with some other group to get scraps from a shrinking pot,” Mr. Obama said. “If the economy is growing, everybody feels invested. Everybody feels as if we’re rolling in the same direction." (The New York Times, July 27, 2013)
Cartoonist R.J. Matson, recently laid-off with 22 other employees from the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, shows us how it's rolling now in "The Top 1%:"
***
image: cartoon by R.J. Matson, "The Missing Piece"
R.J. Matson, Cagle.com
***
Michael Ramirez illustrates Obama's position on the matter in "Leaning In:"
***
image: cartoon by Mike Ramirez, "Leaning In"
Mike Ramirez, theWeek.com
***
An example of the obscene difference between the privileged and those not is Dan Wasserman's cartoon about CEO wages:
***
image: cartoon by Dan Wasserman about CEO wages
Dan Wasserman, USnews.com
***
And don't be fooled by Republicans' idea of trickle-down economics -- you don't narrow the gap by making the rich richer.  Here's a cartoon by Adam Zyglis that serves as an illustration:
***
image: cartoon by Adam Zyglis about trickle-down economics
Adam Zyglis, Cagle.com
***
In this cartoon Dan Wasserman equates income equality with racial equality:
***
image: cartoon by Dan Wasserman about racial equality
Dan Wasserman, USNews.com
***
What I wonder is -- if the 1% have all the money, how will they sell their products to the 99% who have none and are the majority of their market.

-- Marge

No comments: