Phil Gramm says that Americans are whiners?
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Debate over Gramm's comments
"America is in a mental recession"
"We have sort of become a nation of whiners. You just hear this constant whining, complaining about a loss of competitiveness, America in decline." These were the words of former senator Phil Gramm today in an interview withthe Washington Times. As if he hadn't dug himself a deep enough hole already, Gramm went on to say, "You've heard of a mental depression; this is a mental recession." He then said that the media is responsible for stirring up anxiety about the state of our economy to sell newspapers and raise their ratings. He said "Thank God the economy is not as bad as you read in the newspaper every day."
Wow, it's hard to know what to make of these comments. Does Phil Gramm really not understand that the economy is in some serious pain? Does he not see the millions of Americans losing their houses each day? Maybe he doesn't know that there are thousands of jobs being lost each month, especially in the hard hit manufacturing industry. When thinking about why he would make such comments I thought that maybe Gramm is just not well informed at all because he is from Texas, and things are just fine in Texas. Why are things fine in Texas? They are fine because Texas is the oil capital of the United States and quite obviously oil companies are doing quite well right now.
Gramm was later asked about his comments and said he was not talking about the American people, but rather was talking about the America's leaders. He admitted it didn't sound that way in his initial remarks, but he said that he had meant all along that it was the leaders and not the average American. Gramm did stand by his mental recession comments though saying that we still haven't had measured negative growth in the economy.
I do understand Gramm's comments about the fear mongering in the media as far as the economy. There is no doubt that the media has been predicting a recession for years and has been beating the drum of a severe recession as hard as it can. The economy has yet to actually have negative growth, so there is not technically a recession yet, but that may well be still to come.
The problem for Gramm is that regardless of whether this economy has technically hit the mark of a recession or not, it is absolutely ridiculous for him to make any comments calling this a "nation of whiners." Those who have lost their jobs in the past few months or lost their homes can't appreciate hearing that kind of language.
Was Phil Gramm taken out of context or is he just that out of touch with the country? One thing is for sure, regardless of what the answer really is, he isn't a very popular guy right now.
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Comments
It is sad that politics have made almost everyone stupid and whinny. He is right but nobody wants to hear it. He is also one of the whiniest.
It is amazing how so many have allowed an altered perception of everything that has happened in the last 8 years. One of those altered perceptions is, the economy is not controlled by the government, jobs going out of the country are not controlled by the government. The economy is controlled by all the individuals who decide to buy or not buy and what they buy or don't buy.
If you want to keep jobs in America then stop buying foreign goods. Very simple.
The numbers of people losing their jobs and houses are higher than any of us would like to see but overall it is not anywhere near as bad as it appears from the media. Again the economy is controlled by each of us by our actions, so when we allow ourselves to be convinced that we shouldn't spend, the economy slows. Many of these foreclosures would not be happening if it was possible to sell the homes, no one is buying, they are waiting for the bottom which the media says is still to come.
The truth is that when we start harping on how bad everything is it usually gets worse. Most everything I see written or said right now about the economy is how bad the current leaders have made it and by my definition that is whining. It is not entirely true and doesn't blame the real culprit which is us. If you look back, the times the economy is riding high is when individuals don't listen to the pessimist.
And also by my definition, blaming others and not taking responsibility on ourselves for causing these problems, is a mind recession.
My last comment is about the individuals loosing their homes and jobs, is hearing how bad the economy is, better than being told that the economy is still moving along slightly growing so get out there find a new one? Through my 50 years I have had to regroup and find something new, it is part of life. I have also seen the percentages of those in this situation much much higher.
For those who keep talking about the good old days of keeping the same job for life being the norm, when was this? After WWII there was one generation which had that privilege but that is the only one I know of. And that was only about 25 years and ended about the time I started working for a living.
We are responsible for ourselves and sometimes we have to pull up the bootstraps and trudge along knowing that we can and will make it better. That is the American Way that I believe in and am proud of.
This hub tells all of this the best I have seen.
Why Most People NEVER Take Control of Their Lives & How You Can Avoid Being One of Them
Health Conscious,
Thanks for well thought out comment. My point in this hub wasn't to make it sound like I thought he was wrong about everything. I do however believe that he used a very bad choice of words. Clearly the economy isn't doing well right now, and any politician should know that this isn't the time to be calling Americans whiners.
The fact is that America needs to adapt to the changing economic conditions and pull itself out of it. I am confident that will happen.
I completely agree that everyone needs to take more control and think outside of the box when it comes to the changing economy, don't let it blindside you.
Many politicians right now find it fertile ground to sound overly pessimistic to try to get some more votes. In fact I am of the same party of Mr. Gramm, but I think that his words were very poorly chosen. Don't tell the Americans they are whiners if you are trying to help get someone elected. Tell us that the economy isn't as bad as many have made it out to be, but changes need to be made. Tell us that the media and other politicians are making it worse by talking down the economy. Poor choice of words by Mr. Gramm that certainly made me cringe.
Thanks for the comments!
Ya, I've had enough of the media and many politicians claiming we're in a recession then pointing fingers around, as if they know if we are or not, and they for sure have no idea how to fix any problems there could be.
I say we are in a recession for American terms. We buy things and spend money and bank our futures on the promise of growth and increased prosperity. Now that the prosperity has leveled out and growth in many of our large industries has become stagnant, it is time to go through the rough and violent change we made in the 60's and 70's from pure manufacturing powerhouse to a technology wonder world. Question no one is asking is where do we go from here. What comes after computer manufacturing and software development. The person with that answer has yet to raise their voice over the bitching, we can only hope it isn't lost somewhere.
It almost sounds like the Gramm interview was instructions on talking points for the leaders. To put it in context, Gramm was very involved in many of the big spending and big government plans by the GOP. He wife was also on the board at Enron. Whether you are in GOP circles of the IMperial City (DC) or the boardroom of Enron, both have very distorted ways of looking at the world, money and how things work.
In many ways, his comments were a way to reframe the issue, or in other words put some positive spin on it. The ecnominc measures of the value of gold, the stock market, the futures market, the devaluing of the dollar all point to a recession. He can say wha the likes, when it walks like a duck, quacks like a duck,and swims like a duck, its a duck. He can call it a chikcen if he likes, bu t to me its a duck.
I think it might be hard for ME to stay in touch if I made the kind of money he does now for UBS. That's how cut off these guys are. I don't see that he's starting Hubs anywhere around here.
Someone might want to tell Gramm about what happened out in California last week. The second largest bank failure since the depression. The failure is related to the economy and the mortgage crisis. Does he have a newspaper subscription?
Katie says:
16 months ago
Wow what is he THINKING? Does he really believe that? He's going to make people turn on McCain! Stupid Stupid!