Credit: Bill Day (and see Poverty on the Rise)
Sight Gags” is our weekly nod to the ironic and carnivalesque in a vibrant democratic public culture. We typically will not comment beyond offering an identifying label, leaving the images to “speak” for themselves as much as possible. Of course, we invite you to comment … and to send us images that you think capture the carnival of contemporary democratic public culture.
This cartoon could not be any more true at this time of the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression. Unemployment rates are constantly rising as welfare offices have wait lines that can last days. Within the past two years poverty has skyrocketed to reach an all-time high since the Depression, meanwhile, the upper-class is becoming wealthier and overlooking the problem completely. This cartoon shows this phenomenon precisely.
While many of us suffer without jobs, food, money, and shelter the “fat cat” sits back puffing on a fine cuban cigar and brushes the problem that “isn’t his” under the rug. The size difference between these very powerful elite and those impoverished could not be represented better than in this image. The “fat cats” of our society have grown so large that they cannot see the real world anymore. Lastly, these “fat cats” are the same individuals running society and the fact that they do not account for the problems with poverty in America is nothing but a disgrace!!