These were weird, unnerving interviews, and I don't pretend to understand what's going on in the minds of people who have suffered such blows and remained so optimistic. All I can imagine is that the history of this province has given these people a stripped-down, pragmatic mentality: Move on or go crazy. Don't dwell. Look to the positive. Fix what needs fixing. Work together.I don't know if it's emotionally sustainable or even healthy, but it raises at least one interesting question. When you compare these people to the emotional Sturm und Drang over lesser things on reality TV, you do wonder if we Americans are a nation of whiners.
Froma Harrop, one of my favorite liberal columnists, comes to the same conclusion after watching Ken Burns' World War II documentary series:
But then one reads about the food lines in the Great Depression. You look at the destitute norm in the Third World. And you focus on any war, including Iraq, and try to fathom the tragedy of an 18-year-old dying in a foreign desert.Sure, we can shake our heads at Phil Gramm's impolitic remark. And we can condemn the role his philosophy of deregulation played in the current housing mess. But, you know, there's something to what the man said.
I'm sitting here thinking of all the times I've gotten mad or upset over the past couple of weeks. Omigod, the power is out and it's really hot outside! And: Omigod, they haven't fixed our Internet service for a day! And you know, I'm kind of ashamed.
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As you may have noticed, Bucky, I've encouraged everyone who's brought more data to the party (and even said I could argue the other side of the story with respect to the economy). My primary point was that Daniel's data-free moaning isn't worth much.
It's no longer 2005, btw. For fresher data -- from the NYT, no less -- go here: http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/09/business/09leonhardt.html?_r=3&ref=business&oref=slogin&oref=slogin&oref=slogin
A decline in real median family income from $61,000 in 2000 to $60,500 in 2007 is not a good thing, I absolutely agree. Nor is the increased concentration of income toward the top of the spectrum. But is $61,000 to $60,500 really some sort of catastrophic melt-down? And the bottom quintile actually improved, which is a point that the median income numbers obscure.
And anecdotes have their place alongside data -- just not in place of data.
Considering that, even outside our current inflation environment, that prices go up, in general, not down, even staying the same is to be losing ground, financially. And for the median income to actually decrease? Well, not good.
I do know that we are getting more and more people living where I work who aren't from impoverished families or backgrounds.
We had a two income family, one who was an EMT, who makes little enough to qualify for subsidized housing and spent over a week in our shelter waiting for their application to finish.
One of the other statistics to look at isn't just unemployment, these days, but 'underemployment'. People with good skills, and decent jobs where wages have been flat enough, for long enough, that they can't pay basic expenses like rent, utilities, transportation and food, even without extras like repairs and medical expenses, or the cost of missed work due to those problems.
Like they say, from middle class on down, many people are just one unexpected expense, or one missed paycheck from being homeless.
Let us not forget that incomes decreased or stayed flat while productivity was increasing. I think that is unprecedented, at least according to Cowen who is my favorite economic read. There was also the data cited by Douthat and Salam recently showing that the likelihood of having a catastrophic drop in income has more than doubled (7% to 16% ?). I for one, have been worried about our debt for quite a while now. Try overlapping US debt charts with who is occupying the White House. I used to think conservative implied fiscal prudence.
Steve
Applause for Erin's post at August 15, 2008 2:15 PM.
My version of the American Dream was learned from the example of my parents, immigrants from eastern Europe, survivors of WWII. It has two parts, in order of priority:
1) Live free, in a society of free people who share their rights and obligations.
2) Material security. Having enough for the present, enough to bounce back from adversity, and enough to give the children a start when they become independent. Leisure - yes; luxury -- don't care.
Phil Gramm is a flaming a**hole. His first priority is the luxury of his peer group, and if that means deceiving the peons needed to provide that luxury, then... well, that explains his attitudes and expressions, at least for me. Those of us who come from a proud heritage of peons know that whining is the prerogative of the aristocrats, to be mocked and taken as a warning to get out of sight until they get over their snit. The irony of the American Dream as she is defined by many is that along with money and luxury comes the privilege of whining, the ability to act like an aristocrat being the definition of the Dream for so many.
Oh, and lest I leave a bad impression of peons amongst the readers, we can whine with the best of them... the difference being that we don't have the money to buy our way out of adversity. So, we know that when the whining is finished (and our just mockery from our peers has been duly administered and accepted) we still have to get to work again.
Questions and nswers....questions in Italics...
Is it whining to want America to be a leader in peace instead of a aggressor?
There is no peace to be had until tyranny and tyrants are deposed and gone. Peace does not consist of "lacking armed military conflict". Wow, what simplistic and idiotic bit of garbage... We are and have been the "leader in peace" around the globe for a century and Iraq is just one more success.
Is it whining to want a government that protects the victims of Nature?
Absolutely. Stop whining and DO SOMETHING CONSTRUCTIVE, you wimp.
Is it whining to expect that we have health services for all our citizens?
It is absolutely mindless childish and selfish whining to moan and groan that you should be given something by the labor and sweat of someone else. Do you need charity? They by all means say "I want charity, as I can't provide (insert need here) for myself!". We're the most generous people in the world, and it annnoys the living hell out of us to have you disguise your petty demands as some kind of moralistic tripe. But come with your hat in your hand and show us you're in need and we'll give more than anyone else on the planet. And not ask a thing in return.
Is it whining to demand that our industries work for the common good instead of hoarding huge profits while preventing jobs at home?
yes, and it's even more annoying that YOU and your ilk are the ones who've killed millions of great jobs with idiotic policies, mandates, taxes, environmental insanity, and plain old envy-driven get-even-with-the-successful malevolent tax and economic conditions you want to impose.
I think I whine all the way to the voting booth. Phil Graham is a whiner and a loser because he could do his job right.
I think if you knew anything besides your own selfish wants, and your innate drive to control everyone around you for your own selfish and ideological wants, you would have some clue, including how the spell the man's name.
And as I get on my knees today and pray that we have World Peace, am I a whiner?
No. But "World Peace" happens when sin is abolished by the Second Coming of Christ. Until then, we need decisions made by intelligent thought, not whining, moaning, and emotional tantrums.
The job of the government is to provide the opportunities and protect the prosperity of its people, ALL of its people not just the top 5%. We need leadership that will improve the economy of the average man.
We need the government to not listen to clueless whiners like you.
All I need the government to do is protect my liberty, defend my rights and freedoms, establish justice under the law, and STOP FREAKING THROWING UP EVERY ROADBLOCK WHINERS LIKE YOU DREAM UP!!!!
I DO NOT need some stupid "government provided opportunity" and neither do you, or anyone else. We need to learn to provide our own, create our own, and stand on our own feet, not lean on the beaten down taxpayers. It'll make us tough, strong, resilient, and a nation of NOT WHINERS.. YOu know, people who are NOT like you, people who just get up and do what needs doing, instead of wandering off like the spoiled child whining to Mommy that his new Lexus is the wrong trim level.
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