George Ayoub: Thinking good for discovering what's typical

Forget $4 a gallon. Time to fill 'er up on the high octane and power of positive thinking.

That's right, Americans are now being asked to think their way out of the Valley of the Shadow of Recession. And all this time we thought things like market forces, supply and demand and unemployment rates were pushing the economy south.

We were wrong. It was our thinking.

I hate it when that happens.

It's-all-in-your-mind comes courtesy of former U.S. Sen. Phil Gramm, co-chairman of John McCain's presidential campaign and a former candidate for the world's biggest job.

As you probably already know, Gramm called us a nation of whiners, saying that failing banks, astronomical fuel prices, a crisis in the mortgage and housing industry and food prices bulging like the fatted calf are mental -- not market -- matters.

He said we are in a "mental recession."

Hey, the guy does have a Ph.D. in economics. He also has the technical definition drop on us: The R-word has been bandied about for many months, but to date, no government smarty pants has stepped to a podium surrounded by somber-looking men and women with briefcases and said we are in a recession.

It matters little, however, if the recession is official or that those who declare it official feel our pain: We feel our pain.

Which is why Gramm's "buck up" broadside resonated like a spoons solo at the London Philharmonic.



Laughing, remembering

Before we start singing "Happy Days Are Here Again" at our local gas stations, let's consider that Gramm might be on to something.

With no solutions on the horizon -- either from the private sector or the government --  perhaps the way to mobilize Americans into teams of problem solvers is to call them crybabies.

Paying a little extra at the pump? Well, waaa, waaa, waaa.

Losing your house? Your job? Both? Suck it up, you market milquetoast.

Floods, fires, tornadoes? That all you got, Wimpy?

OK, so maybe Gramm is not on to something.

Of course, if we only think we're in deep grease, perhaps a pharmacological solution to our woes is indicated.

"Doctor, a little something to change my thinking, please. The economy of the entire country is at stake."

Yes, I jest. How else should we consider Gramm's remarks? McCain suggested an ambassadorship to Belarus.

The real problem -- aside from the obvious -- is how disconnected a politician, government leader or policy maker can be from the rest of us, whether we be rank-and-file, average Joes and Josephines or the family next door.

Granted, this is a presidential campaign, so advisers like Gramm and supporters like Jesse Jackson say all kinds of silly stuff we can laugh about.

But as you slap your knee, remember, some of them grow up to be Karl Rove.



Thinking hard

Or am I simply complaining that we give inordinate power to people we do not elect, some of whom have to be reminded that a minimum-wage earner in Nebraska will spend about 68 percent of his hourly wage for a gallon of gas. That with the money he has left, he will need a good portion of the hourly wage from a second job to buy the family a box of Cheerios. He will need a third or fourth to pay for medical treatment -- or go without, more likely the choice because he has no insurance either.

He will never own a home because the days of buying one without verifying his income are coming to a close -- but not without a crash.

His story, or some part of it, is typical.

But now important people with access to more important people tell him that he is a whiner, that things are better than he thinks, that it's apparently all in his head.

So being a dutiful American, he follows his leaders, sits down and thinks hard and long.

And the answer comes: typical.



George Ayoub is senior writer at The Independent.