Since I generally read Paul Krugman’s blog anyway, I decided to write my RCL blog about his latest opinion piece again. Krugman’s latest blog, “The Forgotten Millions,” concerns the fiscal and job crisis. Krugman begins by trivializing the fiscal crisis, stating that it is an insignificant issue when compared to the job crisis. Krugman quickly injects politics into his argument, crafting a negative ethos surrounding the Republican party, and stating that “Republicans have been using blackmail as a bargaining strategy.” Krugman makes his blatant message clear immediately from the offset of his essay, portraying Republicans in a negative light, and the President in a positive light, stating that “the president seems ready to call their bluff.”
Krugman then utilizes logos to back up his claim that the fiscal cliff is not a significant issue, stating that if we were to go off the proverbial cliff, “the worst that could happen would be a fall in the dollar, which wouldn’t be a terrible thing and might actually help the economy.” He further uses logos to support his proclamation that the jobs crisis is far more pressing, citing the fact that “as of October, 4.9 million Americans had been unemployed for more than six months, and 3.6 million had been out of work for more than a year.”
Krugman also uses pathos to reinforce his argument, attempting to make the lives of the unemployed more relatable, by emphasizing that they are “individuals and families whose lives are falling apart because they can’t find work… homes lost and dreams destroyed.”
Krugman then proposes his solution to this crisis: rather than focus upon immediately reducing our debt, he believes “that spending more to create jobs now would actually improve our long-run fiscal position.” He then attacks his conservative opponents, stating that “the assertion that government spending creates jobs, but only if it goes to the military, doesn’t make sense.”
Krugman utilizes all three of the primary rhetorical strategies to attempt to convince his reader that espite the hype it is receiving from politicians and the media, the fiscal cliff is not the crisis that we should concentrate on. Krugman argues that we should instead focus our efforts upon combatting the job crisis.
I think that by focusing on something that everyone can agree on (the fact that we need to create more jobs) also helps his position to be more convincing.
I mostly support Krugman’s rhetoric regarding the situation of the job market. Whenever I read an article on yahoo or other news site and scroll down to the comments section, there are loads of comments like “Damn these liberals who destroy the economy and raise taxes and destroy the job market and etc etc etc !!!” The majority of people don’t do -any- actual research before formulating and perpetuating their opinions. Listening to a 30 second segment on Fox News doesn’t count. Oye.
I definitely agree with Krugman’s assessment of the economic situation of the time, especially in regard to spending and stimulus. People disapprove of Obama’s stimulus package, but almost all research goes to show that it is beneficial to the creation of jobs in the long run.