McCain: A lot of Our Problems Today are 'Psychological'

Well, there you have it...All we all need to do is see a shrink, and all of our problems will go away! I guess the exploding prices of food and fuel are 'all in our minds' and not reality....Nor the Housing crisis--It's "psychological"...The quarter million jobs lost in the last month or two--All figments of our "psychological misunderstandings"...This is the guy that may be our next prez...How comforting...Glad to see he's in touch with the average american...4 more years of being deficated upon by these Elitists on the way, no matter who "wins" out of our special-interest-chosen candidates.

This week on Fox News, Neil Cavuto asked Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) about the worth of rescinding an 18-cent gas tax as prices at the pump escalate this summer. McCain responded that “a lot of our problems today” are “psychological” — even the “ability to keep our own home”:

I’m very concerned about it, Neil. And obviously the way it’s been going up is just terrible. But I think psychologically — and a lot of our problems today, as you know, are psychological — the confidence, trust, the uncertainty about our economic future, ability to keep our own home. This might give them a little psychological boost.

Source:
thinkprogress.org...

This from the guy who said "There's been great progress since Bush took office."

There you have it. McCain in a nutshell. Where he belongs.

Who's elitest? So bitter isn't okay to say, but saying the problems in the country stem from everyone having psyhological issues is fine?

Personally, I'm not offended by either. There is probably a shred of truth in both the statements. It'll just be interesting to see if the media attacks McCain like they did Obama.

And to say we've made progress during the Bush era... not even funny. I will not laugh at that statement. It's actually a bit frightening that someone can say that and still be in the race for office.

I got an error when I tried to read the source article . Anyway I would say that McCain is correct but has has spoken out in the wrong context . There is a psychology involved in the way some of Bush opponent's think and act. I can remember a thread somewhere on the boards that dealt with Bush criticizing Mugabe . Any rational person would have supported Bush stance but all the posts I saw didn't reflect this .

Some people have a tendency to take what is posted on a crack pot websites and blogs as gospel truth rather then tackling the issues at hand in a rational manner . That is how so many failed policy's have gone on for so long.

While your link is broken, many discussions of the same statement can be found here:

Google Search

I think you completely misconstrued McCain's intent, as did every blogger that I looked at on the Google Search.

It really isn't that hard to understand and the fact that so many bloggers are missing the point is indicative of either bloggers' poor analytical skills or their gross political bias.

If you watch the business shows at all, you will hear a lot about consumer confidence with regard to the health of the economy and how a loss of confidence can start with something like higher prices in fuel or a dip in the stock market.

When consumers get spooked, even if their fears are unfounded and even if they know that economies are cyclical, they begin to spend less, invest less, sell off their investments and the economy slows down even more.

What McCain proposes is not a panacea for the economic problems we currently face. Neither is the Bush tax rebate, but these measures give consumers a bit of a break. They've got a few more dollars in their pockets and with that at least the "psychological" component of the economy might be alleviated just a bit.

It is small-minded to take a measure offered as a kind of palliative for the consumers' distress and extract meanings that are not present in such a proposal.

McCain knows that this is not the cure to the economic turn-down. He knows that Americans don't need to spend whatever money they get back from the government in the form of tax breaks on psychotherapy.

He didn't even suggest that.

McCain's proposal isn't even an original idea. It's been proposed before and the likes will be proposed again, like when a state drops it's sales tax on food items.

The market is controlled as much by psychological factors as it is by market forces. The stock market crash of 1929 was just such a phenomenon. We now have policies in place to prevent such a widespread disaster on Wall Street.

Experts have long known that a classic phenomenon called herd behavior has a great deal to do with the wild swings of panic and exuberance that can seize Wall Street in the wake of surprising economic news.

But lately they have tried to confront a related question: What makes a herd, financial or otherwise, stop and turn around? Specifically, behavioral experts want to know if there are psychological cues that can help transform this bear market into a bullish one.

“The dynamics of these turning points are much harder to understand” than the original herd behavior itself, perhaps particularly in economics, “and the field is only just beginning to look at them,” said Terrance Odean, a professor of finance at the University of California at Berkeley’s Haas School of Business. [emphasis mine]

How to Turn a Herd on Wall St.

Here you will find many references to the links between psychology and economics.

Google Search


[edit on 2008/4/22 by GradyPhilpott]

He is right! Just look at the crazy bastards in power in the states and you'll get where he is coming from.

McCain is as out of touch with the middle class American as can possibly be. And, like most politicians, he couldn't give less of a damn. He admits he doesn't know anything about economics and says he will "read a book." Great. Sorry, but he's 4 more years of Bush's horrid failed policies. There are many I know around here that are planting vegetable gardens for the first time, including myself. Although not really significant for now, we have food rationing (rice at Costco and Sam's Club) for the first time since WWII! The average American is truly worried and disgusted with where we are now. Pretty much anyone who backs Bush, McCain or the Republicans are selfish rich greedy f***s more concerned about lowering their taxes than being patriotic Americans and doing what's best for the country. Or they're misled but well-meaning people that have fallen for the game plan the Republicans do well on after psychotic people like Falwell and Robertson told their followers to vote for Republicans no matter what since they were against abortion, gays etc. These poor dupes will vote Republican even if Hitler were the nominee and there is no getting through to them with logic and common sense even though they are hurting themselves.

Yeah, Mr McCain- a lot of our problems are psychological these days but most of that is because of the politics of fear your party has been playing since 9/11. And you are certainly playing up on now shamelessly. Hell, let's stay in Iraq another 100 years or 1000- why the hell not?

What could be so adversely effecting the American Psyche? Lemme see-an unjust war costing $5,000 per second and killing many brave men and women in our armed forces and innocent Iraqis; a 40% rise in food prices from a year ago; gas approaching $4 a gallon when it was an average of $1.43 when your Republican Texas oilman in bed with the Bin Ladins and Saudi oil sheiks took office; a national surplus that turned into the biggest deficit in US history; the only modern country in the world that doesn't have health care for all it's citizens; that wonderful "De-Regulation" started by Reagan (Reaganomics trickle-down = breadcrumbs fallen off the table) and expanded by both Bushs and Clinton driving up costs for all Americans; literally millions of jobs going overseas with whole US cities drying up in the wake; total lack of credibility in the world now...

I could go on but what's the point. Look it up on government sites on the internet or elsewhere. In every sector possible, the US had gone downhill since Bush took office. Education, economy, employment- whatever. Look it up. And 4 more years of this wretched s**t?!?

The statement that much of American's troubles are psychological?!? Give me a freaking break! When historians look back on this time they will shake their heads in bewilderment- a collective WTF?!?

It's a scary, scary world where a screw-up imbecile like Bush holds power for 2 terms and another version of him is even close to being President. It's a sad comment of ignorance and greed here in the US. All the while our illustrous media is focused on flag lapel pins, nutty pastors, trumped up sniper tales... It's a sad time in America for the average American.

Well gotta go and till up the garden spot.

[edit on 30-4-2008 by kpoff]

Originally posted by kpoff
Pretty much anyone who backs Bush, McCain or the Republicans are selfish rich greedy f***s more concerned about lowering their taxes than being patriotic Americans and doing what's best for the country.

I support McCain and I'm not rich or greedy. I am concerned about doing what's good for the country. I also know that McCain supports the Bush tax cuts and that I am a patriotic American.

As for the profanity, that's not nice.

[edit on 2008/4/30 by GradyPhilpott]

reply to post by GradyPhilpott


If you are truly for doing what's best for our country how can you possibly support what will be essentially 4 more years of Bush? What do you think McCain will bring to the table that will do us good? You say you're not greedy then 2 sentences later you say McCain is for the Bush tax cuts. Not sayong you are greedy but it seems that taxes are the main reason you're for McCain. Cuts for the rich. The old Reagan "trickle down economics" theory where the lower and middle class get whatever crumbs fall off the upper class' table. Tax cuts in a time of our biggest deficit ever? Tax cuts when our countries' infrastructure is in serious trouble? Tax cuts when we are in the middle of a costly and seemingly never-ending war? There's a lack of logic and common sense there. How do we pay for all this? Simple question.

Read this link and tell me exactly what good Bush has done and his policies continuing under McCain will do.

www.hightowerlowdown.org...

Well Im sure a great deal of the issues in America are psychological and with good reason. I mean after you have been fed a steady diet of fear and paranoia by the media and the leaders of this country every day for the better part of a decade, things start to get a little fuzzy and the mind tends to warp a bit.


Im pretty sure I am not imagining things when I see gas prices at $5 per gallon and see our economy folding before my very eyes. I guess I will just take some Prozac like the good friends at Phizer would have me do, maybe become a drooling zombie, that will fix it

The day I take mental health advice from the likes of John McSame is the day the pink elephants start circling my house. You almost have to be loco to believe his b.s.

100 more years in Iraq Now THAT is CRAZY.

There's hardly a coherent thought in your posts. They're just hate-filled, profane, assaults, completely without merit, taken directly from the left-wing websites, against anything that doesn't sit well with you.

I could have sworn that you were complaining that McCain wasn't interested in lowering taxes, but if you didn't, I apologize.

We actuall have a forum just for rants.

This part of the board is for offering points and positions that have some substance and and are based in reality.

hardly a coherent thought? This is no rant. I'm still asking you what good McCain will do by continuing Bush's policies? Are you not aware the terrible shape we're in? Did you read the statistics on the link? And no, i'm not for the tax cuts for the rich. If you think i'm just ranting from lefist web sites, you're wrong. Read the stats and tell me what we have to gain with McCain.

reply to post by GradyPhilpott


And I have to say it's really sadly funny that you have that picture of $4+ a gallon gas. When Bush took office the national average for a gallon of gas was $1.47 and you still seem to be a supporter at least of McCain and his continuing policies. I'm going by facts and statistics with a healthy dose of common sense. As far as my "rants" being hate-filled, that's not true. My fact-based "rants" are fear fueled more than anything. Fear for our country, my family our future.

And I'm trying to figure out why you have bought into the canard that McCain will be just like Bush.

Bush and McCain agree on some policies, but are polar opposites on others.

Had you been keeping track of politics for the last couple of decades, you'd know how atypical McCain really is and you'd know about the significant disagreements that McCain and Bush have had over the years, especially during those times when they were running against each other.

Again, there is not an original, substantive idea in your posts.

You're just repeating lies you've read or heard elsewhere and are trying to pass off here, as if everyone here was born yesterday.

I did read your link and as I expected, it's just distortions and diatribes against the Bush administration without any historical context.

By the way, I don't take seriously any website that can't find the decency to refer to the president and the vice president in respectful terms, even if they disagree with the administration's policies.

Anyone who can't make his points respectfully, has little of substance to offer or there would be no reason to use profanity, disrespectful epithets, and grotesque caricatures.


[edit on 2008/4/30 by GradyPhilpott]

reply to post by GradyPhilpott


What about the statistics? They're lies? And everything I mentioned above- that's lies or delusions? Are the tax cuts the main reason you're voting for McCain? We can keep funding this war in Iraq (and likely Iran if McCain gets in) by deficit spending and tax cuts? That just makes zero sense. Zero logic there. Do you dispute that?

I agree McCain has some differences with Bush- all politicians have differences with one another. But his tax cuts are keeping with Bush. He wants to keep the war going- an unjust war, and "bomb, bomb, bomb, bomb, bomb Iran." What policies of his do you like aside from the obvious tax cuts?

I don't like paying taxes any more than the next guy but it takes revenue to pay for things. This revenue is brought in by taxes. 1+1=2. Doesn't matter when you born, facts are facts and logic is logic.

You're right- ignore anyone who isn't respectful to Bush and Cheney, facts be damned. sorry if profanity or caricatures aren't your cup of tea but it doesn't change facts.

[edit on 30-4-2008 by kpoff]

1. It's not an unjust war.

2. Corporations don't pay taxes. Their consumers pay taxes in the form of higher prices.

3. Bush inherited a recession from Clinton. The economy rebounded and now we're in another recession. Economists have been predicting the housing bubble to burst for years and finally it did. That's not Bush's fault.

4. More than at anytime during the past there is more competition for resources, including oil. Demand is high; prices are high.

5. If you haven't noticed the economy has tanked from the day the Democrats gained a majority in both houses.

I suggest that you take a good look at many sites to gather data and opinions regarding the economy.

There are some good sites out there that will give you an honest assessment of the economy.

You might also consider the commodities market and how that works to understand the reason many prices are rising.

Good day.

reply to post by GradyPhilpott


That's a chilling statement you made about the war not being unjust. The fact that is is unjust has been proven time and again. No weapons of mass destruction. We are the ones who helped Saddam get into power. No link with the mostly Saudi 9/11 terrorists. If we are there as liberators we would have been there years ago and in several other countries as well. This region has been engulfed in tribal disputes for thousands of years. None of our business. We're there for oil. Period. To control their supply and keep prices artificially inflated. Why do you think it's just?

So do you think the economy is good then? Are we as a country better off than we were 8 years ago? The inheriting a recession thing is he said she said and can be argued endlessly.

Bush deregulated the mortgage market allowing what were essentially junk mortgages with 100%+ financing and teaser APRs that adjusted sharply. Deceptive lenders neglected to tell most people about the teaser rates- ARMs- and falsified paperwork to get the loan through so they could get their points. pure greed. The housing market was indeed over-inflated but that was a major contributing factor.

Yes there is more competition for resources at any other time but that's an ongoing fairly steady rise. It doesn't make sense that gas prices would almost triple in just a few short years. Energy price increases, more than any other factor, have caused the jump in food, etc. Not to sound conspiritorial but could there be something to the facts that the Bush family, Cheney, etc are all oilmen with decades of ties to the Saudis?

Again, are the tax cuts the main reason you support McCain?

I am for the country- what's best for us all. Not just the rich.

I'm gonna have to go pick up my girl from school so if I don't reply soon I'm baby-sitting.

[edit on 30-4-2008 by kpoff]

What's chilling is how fast and loose you are with facts.

You may read the story of Saddam's rise to power in Iraq here.

news.bbc.co.uk...

ask.yahoo.com...

www.pbs.org...

www.cnn.com...

www.moreorless.au.com...

www.int-review.org...

uk.encarta.msn.com...

www.dw-world.de...

I found a couple of sources that claim that the CIA and the Egyptians were involved in a coup in which the "Ba'ath Party overthrew Qassim in 1963."

These sources are highly questionable judging from the treatment of the material in general, as is the case with this site and there is nothing provided to substantiate such claims, except as one cite notes, the CIA was involved in everything in the middle east. This site tends to portray Saddam in a rather beneficent figure, so that's one strike against them from the start.

****Caution: Contains video of Saddam's execution****

www.saddamhussein.com...

Nevertheless, whether or not the CIA was involved in the Ba'ath Party coup has little to do with Saddam's eventual rise to power or the fact that he was was an enemy of the US, was a vicious dictator who murdered countless innocent Iraqis and Kurds, invaded Kuwait, and torched their oil fields, etc., ad nauseum.


[edit on 2008/4/30 by GradyPhilpott]

reply to post by kpoff


Ahh yes, We invaded Iraq not because of their oil but because of human rights...Crazy stuff going on all over the place- Africa, eastern Europe, but we happened to pick Iraq with that huge oil supply. There's some logic for ya. Also nice how you pick and choose what you reply to even after repeated questions. You seem to be a typical Fox News or Faux News type of guy. Very much interested in whatever personal stuff you've got going on than the actual welfare of your country and it's people. You grab McCain's agenda to rationalize whatever personal gains you've got going. By the way, check the history and you'll see McCain is an incredible flip-flopper and most of his crew is or has been in the lobbyists groups. Lobbyists are about as evil self-centered bastards as they come. Well you likely disagree with that as well.

OK here we go again- are you voting for McCain because of the tax cuts to the rich? That would be the 5th time I asked. What do you think about universal health care? Seeing that we are the only modern nation left that doesn't have it, does that make us smart or dumb? Gotta ask- and I think I know the answer- do you have health care? I have a feeling you do. What's your income? (that one's really important not only RE the health care but the whole discussion) Do you think (as McCain does) that the economy has prospered under Bush?

For a change, please reply to all questions. This it tiring you responding to one or two things so I have to repeat legitimate questions.

And once again, we went into Iraq looking for WMD that we already knew was not there. It's well known by many published accounts that Bush-Cheney and the neo-cons intended to go into iraq even before 9/11 and tried their best to link sadaam to 9/11. Oh wait- we went to Iraq because he was mean to his people!! So we changed our reason for invading a country we were already in and we're OK now.

"Fast and loose with the facts?!?" Give me a freaking break. Anyone reading this post please check out my links or better yet research the facts yourselves. Get over your rationalization or ignorance and become an American again!

[edit on 2-5-2008 by kpoff]

[edit on 2-5-2008 by kpoff]