Michelle's Fallacy

"The truth is, in order to get things like universal health care and a revamped education system, then someone is going to have to give up a piece of their pie so that someone else can have more."

The above quote has been all over the news and blogs today.

Does it paint a pretty picture? Terrible grammar ignored, not at all, for the following reason.

Michelle Obama's statement makes the claim that each individual has his or her own pie. Well if we all had our own pie then no one would be giving any up because everyone would have enough. The truth of the matter is that there is only one pie, and it is split 300,000,000 ways.

Consider this pie. It is only so big and everyone gets a slice of it. But that piece varies depending on many factors. Michelle Obama's piece is bigger than yours but who do you think she is talking about when she says "someone" is going to have to give up a piece of their pie so someone else can have more? Certainly not herself. She means you, and she means me. She means to take it from people whose piece of pie is barely enough to feed themselves.

This is the way politics works. The political figure (or his wife) makes a pretty picture out of something that in the end only benefits a few. The majority of us are going to suffer no matter what.

Am I the only one who remembers Hillary blathering on and on about this same thing when Bill was running for president? This comes to mind:

"We are going to take things away from you on behalf of the common good." (And she is your other choice!)

Whose idea of "common good"? Something is pretty clear here...