Susan Demas: Your Argument is Bankrupt

Susan Demas, a reporter for the Battle Creek Enquirer, has unloaded a few doozies over the past month or so. A while back it was a tirade against Walberg and his staff of “20-something Jesus camp counselors.” This time it is a blathering column describing how the rich are getting wealthy on the backs of the poor.

She begins by describing how difficult life is for those poor souls making a meager $57,000 a year. Ironically, she is describing a married couple with two children. Well, this almost fits the description of my household... minus about $20,000 dollars a year.

One would think that if these $57,000 families are having it rough, then certainly a family such as mine that only gets $37,000 (on the high end) a year would be in dire straights! Unfortunately for her line of reasoning, the argument just doesn’t work. Sure we cannot afford the “McMansions” or Mercedes that she claims those who make $166,000 can, but we get by. We live in a respectable 3 bedroom home and drive a luxurious 4 year old Honda Element. Sure, our Lego-style box car is no Mercedes, but it gets us from point A to point B on a regular basis. Granted, our 3 bedroom is no McMansion, but we live comfortably.

These necessities aside, how do we live? Well, not half bad. We own quite a collection of books, a television, a Playstation, a DVD/VHS player, a 5-disc CD player, a digital camera, a digital video camera, and more clothes and shoes than we have room for. To top it off, we have an excellent lawnmower! Beyond this, we have a computer and an all-in-one copier/scanner/printer. And when all is said and done, we have 10% to tithe and money left over in the bank. Is it always easy? Nah, but we make ends meet. All the bills are paid, and any outstanding bills we may have are not due to our lack of money but, rather, due to our lack of prudent spending in times past. All in all, this family of 4 making $37,000 does just fine.

In the end, Susan Demas is simply playing the game of class warfare and guilt manipulation. If one had the time to waste, they could locate where this line of reasoning was employed in the works of class-A guilt manipulators such as Marx or Hegel. I, being a married man with two kids and not enough time to waste on such a venture will leave it to the reader. For now, let it suffice to say that Susan’s arguments are as lame as they are bankrupt.

picture taken from http://mosnews.com