Farnsworth Fantasy
By JB ~ September 24th, 2008. Filed under: Economic Eschaton, Politics.
There seems to be some pushback on the lefty blogs about the whole Biden/FDR/TV thing, so let us take a moment to boil this down, shall we ?
TTA will stipulate that TV was in it’s infancy in 1929, and did in fact exist in Philo T. Farnsworth’s basement or something. TTA will also stipulate that one of the first places such experimental equipment would be tested, for publicity purposes, would be the White House or some other governmental agency easily accessible to the president should he so desire. TTA will even further stipulate that more than one TV receiver was in existence so as to have said broadcast available.
Now for facts. FDR wasn’t president in 1929. America was in economic meltdown, and I doubt more than one or two people would shell out the cash to buy a TV the size of a Buick that cost more than an actual friggin Buick. And whether FDR talked about the economy/depression on TV, radio, cell phone, can-can with a string, bullhorn….. I don’t care if he yodeled it from the Catskill mountaintops… when he actually became president he made the depression worse. Read Amity Schlaes
