Phil Gramm is Correct: We are a Nation of Whiners

I have to agree with what he is saying.

"We have sort of become a nation of whiners. You just hear this constant whining, complaining about a loss of competitiveness, America in decline," said the former Texas senator. "You've heard of mental depression; this is a mental recession."

Gramm also said the media was responsible for fostering unnecessary anxiety over the state of the economy. "Misery sells newspapers," he said. "Thank God the economy is not as bad as you read in the newspaper every day."

I have to agree with him because things are not even close to either the 70's gas crisis and stagflation years that followed when inflation was in the double digits and unemployment was 7-8%. And we are not even ballpark of the 25% unemployment rate or the 16% interest rates during the Great Depression no matter what the media says. In fact we still don't have the 2 strait quarters of negative growth that is the classic definition of a recession. We haven't had negative GDP growth since 1991!

The "nation of whiners" part is true to a point as well. Things are not as bad as it has been in our nations history but 81% of Americans still feel that we are on the wrong track. We don't have millions of men engaged in a World Wide War, we aren't under the threat of nuclear annihilation, whole parts of the nation aren't killing each other in a Pennsylvania field, and we don't have millions of people living in tent cities or riding the rails.

I chalk this "whining" factor up to people who are actually feeling the effects of the economic slowdown. The Iraq War was over there in the Middle East somewhere, 9/11 was a scary time but we quickly got control of the situation, and the Dotcom Bust was Silicon Valley guys with nose rings losing their jobs. Couple this with the fact that too many Americans are economically illiterate and of course they will feel bad about the economy. They blame shady New York bankers, and pinstriped oil executives, and just about everyone else other then themselves for their situation.

The gas and housing crisis's are hitting Americans right where they actually feel pain. In the pocketbook. They can't drive a Full Sized SUV with heated leather seats, they can't afford the jumbo-no money down-interest only ARM on their mini-mansion, and they can't buy a new 64" Plasma TV with their Housing Line of Credit. And maybe Little Jimmy has to go to a State College instead of a fancy private school even though his grade inflated GPA and SAT tutor helped him test into one.

Line these fears up against a person in a Darfuri Refugee Camp, living under a Junta in Myanmar, or having their kid go to a madrassa that teaches her that blowing herself up in front of a blast barrier at an IDF checkpoint is top thing to do with her life. There is simply no contest who has it worse.

There are Americans who are struggling. But they have things far better then a Sudanese person who is struggling. I'm sure a refugee living in the Irrawaddy Delta would love to have trouble meeting a resetting ARM payment instead of dying of dysentery. So yeah, we are kind of a nation of whiners. We have it so much better then so many other people around the world and we almost never acknowledge it.

But luckily past generations of Americans who have faced *far* more dire times then we have currently have shown that we are a nation of doers as well. In a weird way I think Obama winning the White House, and the media starting a rosier outlook to help their man in power, would really spell the end of the gloom-and-doom that America seems to be feeling right now.