[spoiler]
Panel 1: A woman, two small children, and a man dressed like an evil landlord from a silent movie (including curly mustache) are standing atop a precariously balanced wedge of land. The underpinnings of the land have been dug out until they’re basically nonexistent. The woman is yelling in panic, the evil man is grinning and holding a shovel.
WOMAN: SOMEBODY HELP US! This GREEDY BANKER undermined our ECONOMY and it’s about to COLLAPSE!
Panel 2: A male superhero with a “G” in a superman-like chest design flies through the skies, somewhat startling a bird.
SUPERHERO: As the GOVERMENT, I can’t just WATCH this happen… I must TAKE ACTION! TO THE RESCUE!
Panel 3: With a determined expression, the superhero kicks out the remaining foundation, and the two children, the woman, and the evil man go tumbling towards the ground.
Panel 4: The superhero flies through the skies, smiling, carrying the grinning evil man gently in his arms.
EVIL MAN: My hero![/spoiler]
It’s frustrating that in times like these, governments tend to make things worse by pursing austerity programs, laying off huge numbers of government employees, etc..
Why, it’s almost enough to make one a libertarian. ;)
Right, because then the guy kicking the last bit of support from under you can be an entitled straight white dude with a bunch of guns.
Oh wait, no it doesn’t.
That. Is. Awesome.
I’ll be doing my maintenance rounds this week… I’ll visit about 20 small and medium businesses in 3 days. I wonder whether I can find ONE person who dislikes this cartoon.
Hey, Amp. Data is not the plural of anecdote, but… I showed this to five people, and two of them failed to notice that the person whom the government saved was the moustachioed banker, i.e. they thought that the point was that the government only helps some, not all.
Now I know that it’s hard to force people to pay attention, but you may have some idea to make that particular point more obvious.
Aaaaargh.
I’m not sure what I can do about that, but I’ll think on it. Thanks for letting me know.
Can you add clues as to the professions of the people? Put money in the pockets of the banker, Give one of the other’s a cash register, maybe give one a tool belt or a mop? Also, in panel 3 can the hero look puzzled over who to save? If the banker also says something like “save me or I’ll have to undermine even more people.” is another idea.
Hope you don’t mine the input
Amp:
I don’t usually agree with your political cartoons, but, even so, they are usually funny. This is one of your best ones and I agree with it 100 percent as well, so it’s a double bonus.
Amp,
I have to disagree with Sebastian.
I mean, he has an “Evil Mustache” (as if that is not redundant).
Add in the Evil Smile and the shovel and that should be enough.
Plus, even without those, the message of ineffective government definitely comes through.
-Jut
Poking my nose into art (always a bad idea, but irresisitible…)
You might try letting the banker keep the shovel. that way he’s ID’d as the bad guy referenced in the first post. It also reinformces the “…and he’ll do it again!” part.
Great idea, G&W. (And thanks for suggesting keeping the shovel too, JutGory.) I’ve done that — hopefully that’ll solve the problem. And yeah, G&W, it’s good thematically too.
I knew when I was drawing this cartoon, btw, that although I had left-wing critiques in mind when I drew it (during recessions, governments tend to take actions that make the economy even worse, such as laying out huge numbers of government workers and instituting “austerity” policies), there was an obvious interpretation of the strip that right-wingers would like too (and that I disagree with).
Sometimes they just turn out that way, I guess.
When it comes to times like these, I’m very much a Keynesian.
You have to give the banker props for reversing his grip on the shovel in mid flight. It’s dexterity like this that gets him the big bucks and government support.
Damn! I noticed that after I drew his hand in panel 4, and then thought “oh, well, no one’s going to notice.” :-p
I thought he just swiveled his hand from thumb side up to thumb side down. A cool move, either way.
Which is why you don’t want government to come to the rescue – it’s all too easy for it to work out like this. In fact, it’s pretty inevitable.
(a) No, it isn’t inevitable. Look at the Swedish financial crisis, in which the banks were temporarily nationalized and recapitalized, but the bank owners were wiped out. Or look at the bailouts of GM and Chrysler. Or look at the resolution of the S&L crisis in the 80’s. Etc.
(b) The do nothing alternative to the bank bailout would have been a complete collapse of the banking system.