July 22, 2012
Flim flams then and now
By Bill Kraus
It’s flim flam time again on the campaign trail. This year the subject of the flim flam is jobs.
In 1968 the flim flam was Vietnam. Everybody talked about it. Nobody knew what to do to end it, or if they did, they weren’t willing to toss that ball into the campaign rhetoric ring.
In 1960 the flim flam was the missile gap. A subject that was never mentioned again once the election was over. Flim flams have a way of doing that if they are all rhetoric. The missile gap was.
Jimmy Carter’s flim flam was something called zero base budgeting. Nobody else knew what he was talking about, and it turned it he may not have either, because no budget of his had the characteristics of this money saving flim flam. If you erase the slate clean and make everyone budget ab initio as if there had been no budgets before this one, the savings we were told would be enormous. If, of course, the budget creators ever finished putting this monstrosity together which was unlikely.
This year’s flim flam is jobs.
Everybody talks about jobs, some even make ridiculous promises about how many jobs they will create. Others put their history of real or imagined job creation into the discussion on the ridiculous assumption that the microcosms they describe can expand exponentially under their guidance and all those things that have changed and are changing the global economy in general and the US economy in particular will succumb to their magic wand.
I had an opportunity recently to ask an over-promising candidate for an important office three job questions: What jobs, for whom, making what?
As usual, anything that specific is troublesome on the campaign trail where messages are sound-bite sized and slogans trump disquisitions.
The candidate said in response that manufacturing jobs were coming back. From where? From places where labor intensive low skill manufacturing is done at half the cost? From the robots that are doing more and more things every day and are getting smart enough to do more and more things every day as well?
The candidate also said that the opportunities in skilled trades are legion, that the country needs 600,000 welders as we speak. Fact or flim flam?
As long as vague promises and encouraging slogans suffice no candidate is going to talk about the Information Technology revolution which is even more disruptive than the Industrial Revolution of the last millennium was. The Industrial Revolution moved jobs from the artisans’ shops to the factories. The Information Technology is moving them to cyberspace which human beings do not occupy.
The press which at one time was ever present and enormously annoying. Reporters used to ask the kind of questions I posed to the candidate already mentioned. When they got a non answer or an evasive one, they asked a follow up question and they kept asking follow up questions until they got an answer that satisfied them, which could be “I don’t know” which is clearly a political no no.
They didn’t settle for flim flam.
post a letter about this blog »
Those in power, discovered years ago that they could control the message by owning the media.
The free and open press exists only in old movies. Anyone who might challenge the power of those dictating policy are soon muted.
-Richard Kanak | Cherry Valley, Illinois | July 23, 2012
I have been watching the HBO series "The Newsroom." I wish we had a News Anchor like Jeff Daniel's character. Ask the tough questions and and find out what's really behind the politician's BS. Even MSNBC isn't tough enough for me.
-WisconsinLiberal | Fox Valley Wisconsin | July 23, 2012
current
--------
May 2013
April 2013
March 2013
February 2013
January 2013
December 2012
November 2012
October 2012
September 2012
August 2012
July 2012
June 2012
May 2012
April 2012
March 2012
February 2012
January 2012
December 2011
November 2011
October 2011
September 2011
August 2011
July 2011
June 2011
May 2011
April 2011
March 2011
February 2011
January 2011
December 2010
November 2010
October 2010
September 2010
August 2010
July 2010
June 2010
May 2010
April 2010
March 2010
February 2010
January 2010
December 2009
November 2009
October 2009
September 2009
August 2009
July 2009
June 2009
May 2009
April 2009
March 2009
February 2009
January 2009
December 2008
November 2008
October 2008
September 2008
August 2008
July 2008
June 2008
May 2008
April 2008
March 2008
February 2008
January 2008
December 2007
November 2007
October 2007
September 2007
August 2007
July 2007
June 2007
May 2007
April 2007
March 2007
February 2007
January 2007
December 2006
November 2006
October 2006
September 2006
August 2006
July 2006
June 2006
May 2006
April 2006
March 2006
February 2006
January 2006
December 2005
November 2005
October 2005
September 2005
August 2005
July 2005
June 2005
May 2005
April 2005
March 2005
February 2005
January 2005
December 2004
November 2004
October 2004
September 2004
August 2004
July 2004
June 2004
May 2004
April 2004
March 2004