Straw as far as the eye can see

by: Eric B.

Wed Sep 05, 2012 at 12:05:26 PM EDT

A few years ago, there were two states people were taking teaching jobs in after graduating from the teaching program hereabouts ... Michigan and North Carolina. The reason for the first was obvious, and for the second because North Carolina had arrived at the conclusion that the first, best, most logical step towards becoming economically competitive in a global economy was investing heavily in education.

Today, this brings us to this morning's editorial in the Detroit News, which is a coincidental lesson in how to violate the strawman fallacy of logic.

Charlotte, N.C., is a curious place for Democrats to make their case that Wall Street greed is destroying America and all that stands between the middle class and empty cupboards are strong labor unions.

Actually, the Democratic case has largely been that unregulated Wall Street greed is destroying America and that this has been combined with an underinvestment in public resources (i.e. public services and employees to see them carried out) to create a very weak recovery from a very serious financial crisis late last decade. By the way, if you consult anyone who can be taken seriously on this matter, this is exactly the case.

The bit about labor unions is mostly an invention from Nolan Finley's mind, or the mind of whomever was tasked with writing this. They made it up because unregulated Wall Street greed is what has driven the Republican Party's case for itself for the last 20 year. In making the anti-case to the case made by sane persons (which even includes Democrats), they had to make up the case they wanted to thrash because otherwise they'd have to tangle with reality. Hence, making it all about labor unions, which makes this a straw man.

There's more in there about Right to Work, and how because North Carolina has a robust economy and is Right to Work, that it must be Right to Work and North Carolina's friendly attitude towards "job creators" (more on this in a minute). This, if you're into spotting logical fallacies, is the false cause. It's like saying that it rained up here in Mt. Pleasant this morning, and my toe itches around a small bite wound that the rain must have snuck into my apartment and bitten me on the toe rather than the mosquito I really suspect. The experience of other Right to Work states is no so robust, which has led most every expert you can take seriously on these matters to conclude that Right to Work ultimately has little impact on job creation.

What does, and who are these "job creators" that North Carolina is so friendly towards? Well, the economy's health is driven primarily by demand for goods and services. Without demand for goods and services, you lack the basic element to attract business investment, which is the promise of return. So, the state is friendly to job creators, if by job creators you mean people who buy goods and services, which turns out to be people who take teaching jobs down there and do other things.

By the way, conservative political ideology became fashionable because it's most ardent fans used terms like "supply and demand" in describing economic activity. Now, they're resorting to claiming that business owners create jobs from the goodness of their hearts. That is, they've gone stark, raving mad and don't have a firm grasp of the thing they claim they have best to offer the public.