August 2, 2008

Nation of Whiners

Phil Graham, former Senator from Texas said recently some things that got John McCain into a bit of trouble on the campaign trail. He said in an interview:

"You've heard of mental depression; this is 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 despite a major export boom that is the primary that growth continues in the economy."

Now, let's make something clear before I make my points: I'm not one of those kids who takes a summer job like walking dogs, delivering papers or cutting grass. I'm not even one of those kids who works at a grocery store or some other retail job. No, I WORK all summer. The jobs I do are ones that my co-workers are all doing this for a living, not as a summer job. They are the kind of people that the Senator is talking about, the whiners, if you will.

So when I heard Sen. Graham's comments I was stunned and shocked and was ready to stand up and say, "Who are you to call ME a whiner?! I am a hard working, pick yourself up by your bootstraps American like my father and my grandparents before me, and you up there in your ivory tower have no idea of the plight of the working man." And this is the reaction many people took, saying the same thing, all clinging to the notion of America as it was in the first two hundred years of our history.

We look back with fond memories of times we never have seen. We look back to the Pilgrims surviving the harsh winters of Massachusetts. We look back to the Wild West and the Industrialized East at the turn of the century. And we remember the Depression and WWII and how our grandparents and great grandparents fought off hunger, famine, and unemployment and survived to defeat one of the greatest threats the world has ever known in Adolf Hitler. We see these times as the best and always consider ourselves as cut from the cloth of those tough workers. But I got news for you... we're not.

I worked this summer in a dairy with a bunch of people who have either been jumping around from job to job and were older or younger guys who had jumped a bit but haven't had the years of work these older guys did. The work was tiring, but not hard; mostly it was repetitive motion and a lot of standing. We got paid very well, and came home with a good amount of money in one week. In addition to forty hours, we got a ton of overtime, and that helped a ton with the payday. It was a good job that paid well, and I'm sure that the paycheck would make our hardworking ancestors fall over in shock.

So what did my coworkers think of the job? Well, they had an opinion about it, and never ceased in reminding everyone what it was. They always had a problem with something. They didn't want to work a full day, but complained when they didn't get overtime pay. They liked not having to get up early for the shift, but complained that we got home so late. They liked the bosses and joked around with them and then complained about them all the time and complained about how ignorant or unfair they were. It seemed that no matter what they did, the job wasn't what they wanted. Some came for a few days and quit, some a few weeks. One guy came for one day, then never returned. I know these people were just a sample, but I've seen it before, and this is the normal reaction of today's worker... nothing but whining and complaining.

So that's what we have become, exactly pegged by Sen Graham... a nation of whiners. He might have been talking about us complaining about jobs being lost overseas, but the truth is there's work out there and Americans won't stoop to doing those jobs. That's why we have illegal immigrants coming to do those jobs, that's why I have a new employee every week, and that's why we're falling behind in the world in production and economy. We need to stand up once again and take responsibility for our actions, not complain about others'. You can't control anyone or anything but your own actions, and if you haven't done everything you can to make a good living and done a good day's work, then you can sit down and shut up.

Posted by ShawnConway at August 2, 2008 10:22 PM

Comments

Wow, you think you know everything, don't you? You're in for a huge surprise when you graduate. Better hope that dairy keeps you on- with your attitude, you may just be there for a loooong time.

Have fun.

Posted by: MS at August 4, 2008 1:05 PM

MS,
I never claimed to know EVERYTHING, and to do so is insanely big-headed and egotistical for a 21 year old. But my parents made me get a job early so when I did get into the "real-world" that I would have a better grasp on it. What I wrote wasn't rocket science or a sociology report, it was a simple observation backed up by the society we live in, but are just too afraid to say it. When we see someone on welfare or see someone in and out of trouble with the law, we see them as a part of society that has not lived up to that society's standards. Its not a fact, its an opinion, and I could probably find many others with the same opinion.

As a side note, its real easy for you to write that to me and initial it while not arguing a coherent point along with it. If you want to comment, let's try having a point instead of an insult, and let's debate that point. Be a man (or woman), use your name (at least first name).

Posted by: Registered User at August 13, 2008 1:09 PM

McCain's termination of Gramm's involvement in his campaign has little to do with his "whinner" comment.

For those unfamiliar with the origins of today's mortgage crisis, it could do no harm to research the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act. Gramm was Chairman of the Senate's Banking committee. Gramm's bill gutted the protections Americans enjoyed from unscrupulous banking practices created in 1933 in response to The Great Depression.

Gramm's previous authorship of banking deregulation that created today's Mortgage Meltdown was not sufficient to the task of keeping Gramm away from McCain's economic policies, even after the dire consequences of this act had become well known.

This is conjecture, but I suspect Gramm's termination had more to do with his current $1mil per year employer, UBS, and their $19.4 billion penalty for fraud. The same week an investigation of UBS concluded that they were guilty of providing income tax evasion to wealthy Americans. The penalties of this second abhorent offense has yet to be determined.

I don't know about others, but I'm uncomfortable entrusting Americans financial well being with McCain's economic proposals written by an as yet unconvicted white-collar crime banking criminal.

Posted by: cliffhancuff at August 27, 2008 5:09 PM

PS: previously Seton Hall has been good about posting my comments that have not been flattering to a Republican point of view. I hope nothing has changed and that my previous post, just posted, does not get blocked from display on your blog.

Posted by: cliffhancuff at August 27, 2008 5:21 PM

My husband is a general manager in a manufacturing business, and he is always hiring. He's always hiring because somehow he keeps getting what the employes in his plant call 'runners'. Runners are workers who work the job in the morning and then leave at lunchtime (running across the parking lot). From comments by other workers, he learned that these same men work long enough so the unemployment dept isn't on their back and then leave until they're forced to work again.

Of course there are hard working men and women all over our country. I work with many, and so does my husband. But, I agree, there are way too many whiners and complainers who feel that they're entitled to an easy day's work for an enormous day's pay.

A comment for cliffhancuff - it's 'Seton Hill',not "Seton Hall"

Posted by: lucymaesmom at September 22, 2008 4:51 PM

Deregulation had a good deal less to do with the crisis than foolish over-regulation. In the late 1990s the Clinton Treasury Department issued new regulations requiring Fannie and Freddie to extend a certain percentage mortgages to those who couldn't afford them - even requiring them to consider welfare and unemployment checks as valid sources of income on a credit application. Treasury forced Fannie and Freddie to put affirmative action above sound business practice. Both the lenders and the lendees assumed that housing prices would continue climbing, so that anyone unable to pay their mortgages could get out of them by selling. When housing prices did begin to tumble (GASP! who could have predicted that an rising market would ever turn down?) lendees found that they couldn't simply sell off to get out of their mortgages.

This is not to say that Fan and Fred weren't irresponsible, because they were, but if you're looking for a direct, night-into-day cause of the current crisis, it would have to be the Clinton administraton's high-handed attempt to impose wacky social policy onto the financial industry.

Posted by: Megan Ritter at September 26, 2008 12:36 AM