We really have become a nation of whiners

Ripped from the wires ... Froma Harrop observes that maybe Phil Gramm was right to call us a nation of whiners:

By FROMA HARROP

You won't hear me straining to defend Phil Gramm, the Texas Republican whose penchant for grating commentary sunk his 1996 bid for the presidency before the New Hampshire primary. It was really just a matter of time before the former senator, serving as John McCain's economic advisor, put his foot in it: Gramm opined that Americans complaining about the economy were "whiners.''

It's not good politics to call any voter a whiner, and Gramm had to leave the campaign. But honesty impels one to grant him this: The point about America being "a nation of whiners'' is not without merit.

Yes, losing one's job or home is traumatic, and having both taken away more so. But the average citizens facing $4-a-gallon gas and learning that their hacienda isn't the money factory they thought it was haven't exactly been thrown into the Dust Bowl. Some Europeans pay twice as much for gas and live in half the space, and no one is passing around the hat for them.

I spent last week replaying Ken Burns' searing series on World War II. "The War'' follows several American families ranging from working class to upper-middle class. None of them, not even the fancy folks in Mobile, Ala., lived as large as today's typical McMansion family.

These people also had to endure the war's horrific sacrifice, made more unbearable by the youth of the dead. Nearly 7,000 Americans perished on the tiny island of Iwo Jima alone, with several times that number injured, many grievously. It was a hideous battle in a long parade of gruesome campaigns. Over 400,000 Americans died in that war.

One of the documentary's running themes was that of servicemen pining for their loved ones back home. And their homes were modest triple-deckers in Connecticut, farmhouses in Minnesota or bungalows in California.

When the war ended, Americans soon resumed their historic quest for bigger and better. But even then, the returning soldier's idea of palatial living was a 750-square-foot house in Levittown, one-third the average size of a new home in 2006. The accommodations in Americans, by the way, were the envy of ruined Europe.

So the recent economic downturn hasn't made Americans poor by any sane measurement. No one enjoys downward mobility, but let's ask whether telling kids to share a bedroom or downsizing to a sedan represents anything worthy of the word "sacrifice.''

Middle-class Americans fell into this predicament because they started acting like people who are richer than they are. They had built extravagant lifestyles with borrowed money. And they ignored the many warnings that the growth of China and India would push energy prices skyward.

Now is a time to recognize reality and adjust to it in an adult fashion. Though I consider myself an environmentalist, I did put off taking certain steps to cut fuel consumption in my house. It took natural gas prices shooting through the roof to move me to replace my leaky old windows. Believe me, paying for new double-panes was low on my Fun List. Did I whine about the cost? More than I care to admit.

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.

Harrop is a syndicated columnist.

Comments?

Comments

[Brett]

"Middle-class Americans fell into this predicament because they started acting like people who are richer than they are. They had built extravagant lifestyles with borrowed money."

Exactly! And until we begin convincing our newest generation of consumers that it's inappropriate to pay for gasoline, groceries, and other transient and non-durable goods with credit cards, then we're going to continue this downward spiral. I'm so disheartened when I go to college campuses and see credit card companies throwing plastic and free t-shirts at the masses for nothing more than their signatures and an empty promise to repay in a timely manner.

Where do we begin to fix this problem? I contend that a national balanced budget amendment would be a great start in it would send a message that "we the people" are no longer content to give ourselves and our leaders the proverbial blank check (or limitless credit card, if you will).

"Neither a borrower nor a lender be" - Shakespeare got it, why can't we?

[DanielC]

Argh,

This post is too long and will get "spammed".

So, http://www.danielscochran.com/dscblog/?p=170

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[DanielC]

Rebut to “We have become a Nation of Whiners” by Froma Harrop, presented in http://thesunnews.typepad.com/opinionblog/2008/08/we-really-have.html August 6, 2008.

“…
Yes, losing one's job or home is traumatic, and having both taken away more so. But the average citizens facing $4-a-gallon gas and learning that their hacienda isn't the money factory they thought it was haven't exactly been thrown into the Dust Bowl. Some Europeans pay twice as much for gas and live in half the space, and no one is passing around the hat for them.
…”

Why does Froma interject what the Europeans are paying in gas when we in the United States produce our own gas via drilling and refinery of oil “in-house”? Europe does not have oil reserves native to their countries, thus they must import any gas they wish to use in their automobiles.

To compare our houses, the single most important investment
any family or person can make to their future, as un-expected losses of cash is inane and vulgar by the writer since we the people have been told by our parents and grand-parents of the Dust Bowl age, that you’re only sure bet is your property. Hold on to and or invest in “ground” for your future because real-estate only increases in value. It is the only thing a whole crapload of us have to invest in with loans from banks that pays off in the long haul. Oh, someone can invest in stocks as some posters of this site have presented, but that’s not a credit option for someone living paycheck to paycheck. When one’s paycheck to paycheck existence allows the mortgage payment on a home/land then one would be a fool to pay the landlord another penny. This is a fact that we have been taught outside of school by our elders. To those of us that respect our elders, we listen, learn, and act on the advice.

“…
I spent last week replaying Ken Burns' searing series on World War II. "The War'' follows several American families ranging from working class to upper-middle class. None of them, not even the fancy folks in Mobile, Ala., lived as large as today's typical McMansion family.
…”

Froma must run with a different crowd then I run with in our day-to-day lives. I run with folks that try to keep the bills as a minimum and feed the kids while planning for their kid’s education and personal retirement. It must be nice to have all that expendable income that a columnist has that a plumber, electrician, educator, painter, welder, framer, programmer and such do not have at the end of their pay cycle.

“…
So the recent economic downturn hasn't made Americans poor by any sane measurement. No one enjoys downward mobility, but let's ask whether telling kids to share a bedroom or downsizing to a sedan represents anything worthy of the word "sacrifice.''
…”

Let’s tell the kids it’s Mac’n Chez night again because the Insurance, gas, electric, FICA, FUTA, MUTA, State tax, Federal tax, and property tax (right to own paid to the state for your property) has gone up because the Executive Branch and Congress have determined that sending TRILLIONS outside of our country is acceptable while we write them e-mails, post on blogs, write on on-line newspapers that it is not acceptable to be in debt this far and expect to survive.

“…
Middle-class Americans fell into this predicament because they started acting like people who are richer than they are. They had built extravagant lifestyles with borrowed money. And they ignored the many warnings that the growth of China and India would push energy prices skyward.
…”

Most of us did not. This is a lie. We all knew that if we cannot pay our bills s**t gets cut off. This borrowing by some is the keep up with the “Jones” by a few has nothing to do with the spending free-for-all our governing class has dumped on us since the 50s. Maybe the id10ts that followed suit of the governing class thought this, but me and Joe f’n 6-pack knew, if you did not have the cash, you can’t buy the stuff.

“…
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.
…”

So your saying that we are the reason Congress and the last six Executive administrations spending has nothing to do with our, ‘we the people’, situation of our dollar being valued at 10 pesos? Sorry to pick on the Mexican dollar, but we used to be at like 10,000 pesos. So your saying that we should lower our standards to third world nations ‘we the people’ have been sending TRILLIONS to the last forty years to help feed these folks as the us f’n whining? What rock did your butt just crawl out from underneath to proclaim this great revalation?

“…
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.
…”

There is NOTHING Mr. Gramm says that comes close to the cussing, bitching, ranting, and banters that ‘we the people’ have to say about our governing class in regards to the mis-management of our United States of America that our fore-fathers fought and died to provide for us the “whining” public.

You sir are a ‘tool’ of the ruling parties if you can sleep at night after this spew of lies and mis-understandings of what we in the trenches are experiencing in our attempts at feed, clothing, housing and educating our children.

I would ask that you read, instead of the crap you are reading: “Reclaiming the American Right: The Lost Legacy of Conservative Movement” by Justin Raimondo.

“…
The Old Right was that loose grouping of intellectuals, writers, publicist, and politicians who vocally opposed the New Deal and bitterly resisted US entry into World War II. This summarizes the two first principles of the Old Right worldview: less government at home and strict adherence to the Founders’ admonitions against foreign adventures and entangling alliances. It is a calculated risk to describe the Old Right as nationalist, but one that must nevertheless be taken. The risk is that the reader will think in terms of the Prussian model: statist, militaristic, obscurantist. This would be a gross error. The truth is that the Old Right represented a distinctively American phenomenon, which owed nothing to the Old World and was, in all essential ways, the exact opposite of its European counterpart. It was a nationalism of an unprecedented kind, based not on blood and soil and the need to expand, but on a tendency towards introversion, and impulse to draw back from the world and its endless quarrels. This was not a narrow, backward-looking nationalism, but a forward-looking pride of place and had nothing in common with the tribalism of Europeans. Pride not only of place, but of spirit; that sparked the American Revolution and suspicious of power, not progress.
…” P. 52

Just my banter,
DanielC

[DanielC]

Danny Boy,

I know to TL:DR for your grasp of reality.

Plus this version has typing issues and sentence structure issues that would confuse you beyond the scope of your scope of realism.

Much prayer and hope for you,
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[DanielC]

*beyond the grasp of ...

It's late and I'm tired, plus I don't have editors to advise me.

*wink*

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[Richard L. Wolfe]

Daniel, I read every word you wrote and I appreciated it. I just wanted to let you know that in case you think you wasted your time, you didn't.

Here is a clue as to what we are up against. It is all about do you, in the universal sense meaning everybody, believe in God or man. This nation is at a crossroad the path we go down will determine the fate of this nation.

Keep up the good work!