Article Analysis: Examining Caleb Bond's Critique of Liberal Finances

This essay analyzes Caleb Bond's article, "No longer can we look to the Liberals as good financial managers. They have given in to temptation." The essay identifies and examines the persuasive strategies employed by Bond to critique liberal financial management. The analysis focuses on Bond's use of rhetoric, logic (logos), emotional appeals (pathos), and appeal to authority (ethos) to construct a compelling argument about government debt and its impact. The essay highlights Bond's use of rhetorical questions, factual evidence, and emotional language to engage the reader and convey his perspective. Additionally, it explores the metaphors and objective presentation used to strengthen his claims. The conclusion emphasizes the effectiveness of Bond's techniques in presenting a sound and objective argument.

Article Analysis 1
The article entitled, “No longer can we look to the Liberals as good financial managers.
They have given in to temptation”, which was authored by Caleb Bond attempts to give insights
on how the current liberalist in New Wales State are failing to contain debts that seem to
accumulate. Caleb Bond is a teenager who seem to support conservative ideologies though he
was raised by liberal parents (McCasker, 2015). In this essay, I will identify different strategies
used by Bond to make his arguments appealing, credible and sound.
Bond utilized many strategies to convince the reader about different points expressed. For
example, in attempting to demonstrate that the current debts would be paid by the next
generation and generations to come, he uses rhetoric question. He states “Tell me – is it fair that I
should have to pay for the spoils of today?” (Bond, 2018). This is a rhetoric question because it
is obvious that it is not fair for him to pay for the spoils of today. Such question is relevant
because it places the reader in an empathizing situation and in process, allows the reader feel the
message and even internalize it (Gagnon, 2014),
Bond’s arguments also appeal to logic or logos. He revealed how the current government
is associated with highest level of debt to GDP in history at 41.9 per cent. To make this even
more conspicuous, Bond revealed that the lowest debt ever realized was 2007 at 9.7 per cent –
and it has increased every year since (In Bryant, 2017).
Another strategy utilized by Bond is appeal to emotion. The first paragraph has a number
of sentences that appeals to the readers emotion. The first sentence states “…sitting next to your
ailing father’s deathbed, holding his hand and savouring your last moments together” (Bond,
2018). Sitting next to an ailing father is an emotional moment. Another sentence in the first
paragraph that elicit emotion is a sentence stating “….He extends his free arm towards you,
clutching a credit card” (Bond, 2018). The sentence depicts a struggling father. A father trying to

Article Analysis 2
extend credit card. It is emotional to experience an ailing father struggling to do something. By
reading the first sentence, every reader would be attracted to know more (Korthals, 2014)
Bond also appealed to authority. There is an instance where he uses the word God. For
example, in the first paragraph, he states “On this card he has run up bills, groceries and God
knows what else”. God is a supreme being. When a reader sees the name God, he or she will be
persuaded that indeed the message being passed is credible and real.
Bond also used metaphor to elaborate his ideas. Instead of just saying that the
government is not doing its duties effectively, Bond created a story of credit card situation.
Through the credit card situation, the reader will manager to learn more than if Bond had just
started by stating that the government has forced people to accumulate debts. Another metaphor
associated with the article is where Bond attempted to talk about the undesirable effects of debts
by using metaphor. For example, in the sentence that states “…and told us young ones coming
through to pick up the pieces” (Bond, 2018), the word pieces is a metaphor used to signify
something that is no longer useful. A piece is a section of a whole. A reader will be able to
visualize the message using the word piece. ,
Additionally, Bond did not just want to appeal and attract readers to his article. It is clear
that he had a specific message to say. His message is objective and there are many evidence to
support this. He describes how the liberal politicians coax the voters. This is evidenced by the
statement, “.. fairness does not mean we’re entitled to more handouts or whiz-bang infrastructure
on tap” (Bond, 2018). This is a fact because that is what the liberal politicians do to get votes
(Baker, Bloom & Davis, 2016). This means that Bond managed to balance opinions and facts.

Article Analysis 3
To conclude, it is apparent that Bond did not only perfected to use key persuasive
techniques but also ensured that his arguments are sound, objective and valid. Consequently, I
can say that the article presents an overall good argument.

Article Analysis 4
References
Baker, SR, Bloom, N & Davis, SJ (2016) Measuring economic policy uncertainty, The Quarterly
Journal of Economics, 131(4), pp. 1593-1636.
Bond, C (2018), No longer can we look to the Liberals as good financial managers. They have
given in to temptation, The Advertiser, available from:
https://www.adelaidenow.com.au/news/opinion/caleb-bond-we-can-no-longer-trust-the-liberals-
with-financial-management/news story/f8161d9a71260376bfa9b806668d1a7e?
memtype=anonymous
Brogaard, J, & Detzel, A (2015) The asset-pricing implications of government economic policy
uncertainty, Management Science, 61(1), pp. 3-18.
Gagnon, JP (2014), Democratic theorists in conversation: Turns in contemporary thought,
[Basingstoke] : Palgrave Macmillan
In Bryant, KN (2017) Engaging 21st century writers with social media, Hershey, PA :
Information Science Reference
Korthals, AL (2014) Ethos and narrative interpretation: The negotiation of values in fiction,
Lincoln : University of Nebraska Press
McCasker, T (2015), The Strange World of an Australian Teenage Conservative Political
Commentator, Vice, Available from: https://www.vice.com/en_au/article/dp55pm/the-strange-
world-of-a-teenage-conservative-political-commentator