The “Onerous” Society

The “Onerous” Society
-President confused meaning of "ownership society" with "onerous society"
(SEATTLE) 09/03/2004 - George W. Bush is known for confusing and mispronouncing words. His speech Thursday night at the Republican Convention was perhaps his greatest riddle. He asked us to trust him to “defend” the United States--but documents show the Bush administration was confused, and unable to do exactly that. That is, nothing was done, in spite of advance notice of September 11th, in the form of the clearly worded warning on August 6th, 2001. (1) Moreover, Mr. Bush asked us to equate an “attack” on the nation of Iraq--which wasn’t a threat to us-with a “defense.” Apparently, the commander-in-chief needs us to ignore the difference between the words “attack” and “defense”--just as we should ignore the difference between actual box cutters, and fabled “WMD.”

Next, Mr. Bush correctly touted the value of education towards building a skilled American workforce. But here, he seems to have confused the word “education” with “employment” (they both start with “e”, after all). Unfortunately, no longer does the first “e-word” lead to the second, as so many of us have painfully learned. Specifically, since Mr. Bush has entered office, not only has overall job growth been weak, but also the employment rate of college graduates has fallen. (2)

Finally, in a most baffling mix-up, Mr. Bush touted an “ownership society.” While he seems to be touting Americans “owning” things like homes--despite ever-increasing mortgage balances on the same--this would seem to be a backwards conclusion. To wit, given ever-increasing ownership of American assets by non-Americans, he must be confusing the word “ownership” with similar-sounding “onerous”--likely stemming from recent conversations with Mr. Greenspan. (3)(4) You see, Mr. Greenspan has been visiting the White House lately, discussing a rather heavy and growing fiscal burden. Yet, maybe George’s slip could be overlooked-why should George be proud to “own” a country incurring such “onerous” debt?

Footnotes: (1) See memo entitled “Bin Ladin Determined to Strike in US” --which described “patterns of suspicious activity consistent with preparations for hijackings.” Copy of August White House memo which proves inability to defend even when warned. (2) Economic Policy Institute (3) Onerous “troublesome or oppressive; burdensome;” Definition of 'onerous' even most presidents can read (4) “The percentage of U.S. government debt owned by foreigners stood at 37.3% last year” “4.7 0n 1965” (WSJ, 02/05/04)

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