The new reality, it used to be a joke

Back in the day, I used to tell a joke – it always got a laugh – that went like this:

The president of a US multinational manufacturer and retailer which had a bad year was addressing the company AGM in New York.

He said, in defending the poor sales result, “One might reasonably ask where have all the customers gone.”

A voice from the back of the hall shouted back, “You sacked them all, you moron.”

I don’t tell that joke anymore, because it’s become the new reality, especially in the US.

I mention this now because a video of US presidential candidate Mitt Romney has surfaced where he says”… There are 47 percent of the people who will vote for the president no matter what. All right — there are 47 percent who are with him, who are dependent on government, who believe that, that they are victims, who believe that government has the responsibility to care for them. Who believe that they are entitled to health care, to food, to housing.”

Of course it was at a private gathering of wealthy donors, that was ‘closed to the media’.

No kidding? I’ll just bet it was, with commentary like that floating around.

He went on to say, “My job is not to worry about those people. I’ll never convince them they should take personal responsibility and care for their lives.”

In all seriousness he said that. And his audience just ate it up. Clapped and cheered and told themselves that dear little Mittwell was the cutest thing they’d ever seen outside of a Days of Our Lives episode.

So, back of the envelope time.

47% of the US population is about 140 million people. Unemployment in the US is probably somewhere north of 10%, although the published figures are lower than that. But let’s be real pesso and say, 15% unemployment.

It follows then that the 85% of those people, (about 120 million), that Romney is talking about actually have a job and so are not dependent on the government. They are working and trying to get ahead.

But according to ‘Vote for honest Mitt’, they just don’t want a job. Apparently, they prefer to rely on government handouts.

The man – and his sycophantic supporters – evidently live somewhere… oh, I don’t know, maybe somewhere roughly located at, first star on the right and straight on ’til morning.

But Romney doubles down on hypocrisy, and unreality, because  most of 15% who don’t have a job, would love one; would likely kill for a job, especially one that paid a living wage, which many jobs in the US don’t.

And why can’t they find a job?

In large part because companies like the one Romney used to run, Bain Capital, shut down thousands of factories and exported millions of US jobs to China.

And now he’s blaming the the very people he put on the scrap heap and, what’s more, he’s denying all responsibility for them.

And, here boys and girls, is the lesson for us.

Where Mitt would goeth, there would Gina, along with Abbott and his team, follow. If we are silly enough to let them.

Because that joke… yeah, it’s the new reality.

But nobody’s laughing.