Manufactured Anger
By James Hamilton
I read in an article recently that ABC News correspondent John Quinones first made a name for himself (and jump-started his career) by hiring a Mexican human smuggler to get him across the border into Mexico so he could then make the trek back across into the United States - like millions of illegal immigrants do each year. The point of the article was that some experts, like Quinones, really know what they're talking about when they take to the airwaves or blogs.
That leaves tons of other bloggers, reporters, radio personalities, etc. who can claim no expertise whatsoever on anything - except, maybe, getting their opinions out to the masses.
This "manufactured anger" takes up more space on Internet search engines than is imaginable. Search Google for most any topic and blogs of all kinds will appear among the results.
We all have opinions. And we're entitled to them. But as the late great Senator from New York, Daniel Patrick Moynihan, liked to note, "We're not entitled to our own set of facts."
The General Accountability Office, Federal Reserve, Congressional Research Service all agree that Social Security, Medicare, and many other federal programs are growing at unsustainable rates.
Unsustainable?
Sure. Within the lifetime of most everyone reading this blog, the programs' size will outpace the ability of American workers to pay the taxes necessary to fund them.
Almost every single American is affected by the coming financial crisis. No need to "float across the river" like Quinones did. We're all experts - or can easily become one - because each of us is has a vested interest in it.
No need for manufactured anger. This is the real deal.
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