One of our staff members recently got a new iPhone - along with quite a few other people we know - and the thought that bounced around for us today is that modern technology has given us some pretty incredible developments. With those advances in technology come a lot more numbers than we ever used to deal with.
For example, a pile of polling results were dumped in the laps of the media yesterday. Apparently, New Yorkers - even Republicans - back the Occupy protesters at a 3-1 rate over the bankers on Wall Street. Ninety percent of New Yorkers think it's "okay" that that Occupiers are protesting.
If you'd prefer earnings numbers, Citigroup on Monday announced a third-quarter profit of $3.8 billion, up 74%. For a company American taxpayers bailed out three years ago, things don't seem all that tough on Wall Street these days.
There were even Pew Research Study numbers that have finally proven, once and for all, that the media is no longer liberal. When Sarah Palin gets favorable media coverage more than 30% of the time, while President Obama receives less than 10% favorable media coverage on average, anyone who claims the media leans left is neither fair nor balanced.
The strangest number we've seen lately, though, happens to be GOP Presidential candidate Herman Cain's 9-9-9 plan - which sounds disturbingly like a Godfather's Pizza special, instead of a governing, tax, and budget theory.
Every legitimate examination of Cain's plan that we've seen says it would be a disaster for the Federal budget, and even worse for poor and working class Americans. In short, it would turn the current tax code on its head, and bury everyone but the wealthy with higher tax rates. The 9% sales tax alone would destroy many on the bottom rungs of our economic ladder, who find it difficult to even pay for a pizza.
Put bluntly, if your state and local sales tax is already 9%, Cain's idea would add another 9% on top of that.
Cain even admits it would raise taxes on the middle and lower classes - and yet for some reason, he still thinks Americans will rally around his plan, even after they figure this out. Maybe Cain should use a technological development known as "YouTube" to see exactly how large chunks of Americans feel about the wealthy being taxed less, while the rest of America has to suffer.
Somehow, we're not entirely surprised at Cain's feigned ignorance of facts regarding his own 9-9-9 plan.
His ties to the right-wing corporatist Koch brothers are well-known, through the misleading and mockingly named group "Americans For Prosperity." Cain's 9-9-9 plan would heavily benefit groups like AFP, companies like Koch Enterprises, as well as extremely wealthy individuals like the Koch brothers - and even Cain himself.
Even with all the numbers, statistics, and technology we've talked about today, the one constant that still hasn't changed is this: as long as nearly unlimited money is allowed to control our political process, the person who has the most money in most elections wins ninety four percent of the time.
If it takes you longer than thirty seconds to figure out that isn't an example of a properly functioning democratic republic, we're not sure anyone can deliver you from your sad state of delusion.
