Rhetorical Precis
Paul Krugman in his column, The Age of Fake Policy, claims that headlines stating Trump Saves Jobs are false policies detracting from the real issues. Krugman supports his claim by first illustrating today’s economy and depicting what a normal day within it would look like. How 75,000 Americans being fired in a day isn’t only average but a small number in comparison to the 145 million large job market. He then defines the difference between real policy and fake policy by using real world examples such as repealing the Affordable Care Act versus Trump’s intervention with Carrier or Ford. Lastly, the author explains how Trump’s involvement had no effect on any of the company’s final decisions, nor did it save any jobs. Krugman’s purpose is to inform the general public of the false journalism surrounding Trump and major corporations so that they’re not tricked by misleading headlines. The author writes in an accusatory but candid tone towards news journalist. This work is significant because it explains something as complicated as policy and the economy on a level that the general public can understand.
Rhetorical Analysis of Diction
In his column, The Age of Fake Policy, Paul Krugman effectively uses diction to convince the general public that misleading headlines like Trump Saves Jobs are false policies detracting from the real issues such as repealing the Affordable Care Act. Krugman uses a broad impending diction in order to build up tension concerning the vast amount of Americans being laid off such as “75,000”, a large number in itself let alone for just a day. He then describes the situation as an “economic catastrophe”, an event causing great and sudden suffering, when he had a plethora of other words he could've used but didn't. He purposely used catastrophe because just as suddenly as the event supposedly happened, he reveals that it wasn’t even real. That as big as a number 75,000 fired employees is, it’s still relatively small in comparison to the 145,000,000 job market they were fired from. And that the apparent 100 jobs President Trump claims to have saved never mattered anyway because that same 100 were fired elsewhere, all the while the GOP simultaneously planned to repeal the Affordable Care Act resulting in 30 million people ultimately losing coverage. A policy probably concerning you that you’ll never hear of and all because Trump Saves Jobs were the only headlines covered.