A WORD ABOUT THIS WEEK'S COMIC, "HARD TIMES IN VHS COUNTRY"

-

When I sent out the comic to the INNER HIVE yesterday, I included this concern:

"I hope readers don't misinterpret this as insensitive to the unemployed, or to families going through economic hardship.  It's not really about the families but about misguided, poorly-thought-out protectionist, backwards policies.  The plight of the families caught at the intersection of changing global economic forces and technology is very real, and must be dealt with by all of us."

I parodied the journalistic trope of a news story's focus on coal families and communities to highlight this issue, but I certainly don't mean for this cardboard story to make light of people going through this.  (Note that in the final panel it's revealed that the whole dramatic presentation was funded by a VHS manufacturer in support of Trump.)  A fuller, balanced account of my views (and not a satirical cartoon) would include an argument that we have an obligation to help and support people going through the economic turmoil caused by seismic global and technological shifts.