Bush campaigner says they should go on Prozac.

[kuangning]

Bush campaigner's Prozac solution

She says unhappy workers should try medication
Updated: 1:54 p.m. ET July 29, 2004

WASHINGTON - A campaign worker for President Bush said Thursday American workers unhappy with low-quality jobs should find new ones — or pop a Prozac to make themselves feel better.

“Why don’t they get new jobs if they’re unhappy — or go on Prozac?” said Susan Sheybani, an assistant to Bush campaign spokesman Terry Holt.

The comment was apparently directed to a colleague who was transferring a phone call from a reporter asking about job quality, and who overheard the remark.

When told the Prozac comment had been overheard, Sheybani said: “Oh, I was just kidding.”

While recent employment growth has buoyed Bush’s economic record, Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry has argued the new jobs are not as good as those lost due to outsourcing in recent years.

Nearly 1.1 million jobs have been lost since Bush took office in January 2001.


... there is nothing I can add to this. Thanks to kat for the heads-up.

Comments

oopsie! ;)

[deusinnomen.livejournal.com]

Somebody just lost their job. ;)

Re: oopsie! ;)

[kuangning]

Naww. They'll respond with "she was just joking!" and attempt to attack anyone who says she was wrong to say it.

Re: oopsie! ;)

[hardvice.livejournal.com]

...of course, they didn't seem to have too much sympathy for that theory with respect to Whoopi Goldberg, and it's her job to joke.

Re: oopsie! ;)

[kaolinfire.livejournal.com]

I'd consider myself fairly anti-bush, but that really does just seem like a joke, and one made in I'm sure rather friendly and comradely territory. This country as a whole maybe needs to pop a prozac and get out of the landfill, look around a bit, target slightly more important things...

[primis.livejournal.com]

Umm.

I hate to break this to you, but...

SHE'S RIGHT

If you have a job right now and are unhappy with it, shaddup. Or go find a new/better one. Or go CREATE one on your own if you can do it financially, and possibly create even more jobs for someone else. If you don't like what you've got right now or can't won't do something else, then *too bad*. That's life. Grow the #$&*% up. There are a lotta' people around right now that'd probably even take what you consider such a "crappy" job because income from a crappy job is better than no income at all.

I mean, seriously... if you're going to pound on the "Prozac" bit that's one thing. But I hope to God that you guys aren't going to sit there and tell me she's wrong that unhappy workers should do something on their own and not just whine, moan, and complain, waiting for some handout that ain't gonna' ever come. The economy doesn't work that way...

This is our capitalist society. Cope.


-- Primis.

[kuangning]

Erm, the comment was more than a bit heartless -- it smacks of "Let them eat cake" when the peasants wanted bread. The fact is, jobs aren't exactly thick on the ground, and from the standpoint of someone who's never earned more than $22,000/yr even working full-time, overtime, and seven-day stretches sometimes, I'm going to tell you that someone who looks at me and says "well, if you're so unhappy, why don't you just get a better job?" is asking to be slapped. You think I work crappy jobs for lack of trying for something better? Please.

[primis.livejournal.com]

And who is this that's talking to you right now? I suppose I'm some person with a good-paying job and who's happy with it? No, I'm not...

That's just life though. I can forgive blunt and heartless comments if they're the truth, and this is simply the truth. And I think the only reason you're so irritated by it is because someone in the Bush Administration, which you hate and loathe, said it.

In case you hadn't noticed, the American people are as much responsible (possibly more) for the job situation being what it is. People aren't investing, expanding, and starting up businesses like they have been and VERY easily could be right now, but they've found lame easy-out excuses and the rest of the market's followed suit, and thus the stagnation. There's NO reason the economy couldn't have bounced back further right now other than nobody wants to really do it. They'd rather let someone else do it.

So she's 100% correct. There's not really a damn thing anyone in Washington (I don't care WHAT party they are or what position they hold) can do about it right now because the people that could have easily done something a year or so ago continue to refuse to do anything.

Stop trying to find a convenient Bush-related scapegoat for the economy -- at this point the American people are largely to blame for it and have been for some time, and the whole situation spans back over two or three adminstrations...


-- Primis.

[kuangning]

No, I really would have been just as annoyed had someone else said it -- witness my comment, and me being more than vaguely annoyed at you, for example. Because it's stupid and callous to look at a fucked-up system and place all the blame on the victims of that system. The people who are working at something are the ones who are trying for something better. Not everyone's got what it takes to be a successful entrepreneur, for example. Some people need structure and leadership. Not everyone's an inventor, just like not everyone's a scientist, and it takes money to run a business, or even to start one, and that's hard to come by when your regular job barely covers the bills.

And if you really think she's correct and all it takes is trying, how come you're still unhappy with your job situation? Are you really just not trying hard enough? Is there a great job out there just waiting for you to open your eyes and apply for it, and you just haven't yet?

... There are times when I do believe people perpetuate things that aren't good for them. Young black men who refuse to finish school and don't see the point in education, for example, are asking for hard lives and sometimes hard time -- because there are very few legal ways to live comfortably, financially speaking, without an education. Girls who have unprotected sex while still teenagers are making life rougher than it has to be. Being a single mom's no picnic. For that matter, sexually transmitted diseases aren't a joke either. But when a person's willing to work, is looking for work, and is qualified to work, and yet can't find a job that keeps the wolf from the door, that's not a failure in him. That has nothing to do with who's in what office, that's just plain speaking.

[primis.livejournal.com]

And sometimes just because you're trying for something doesn't mean you're going to get it. Sorry, that's just the way of the world unfortunately.

Life isn't fair. Being good and working hard DOESN'T always get you somewhere. Sometimes it's just NOT going to work in what's considered a sane or reasonable timeframe, and no guarantee it will work at ALL.

In regards to your saying it's irrelevant who stated it, you obviously didn't think so because you stated that it was a "Bush campaigner" no less than 3 times in the first 3 lines of someone reading the thing. So I find it very difficult to believe that this has nothing to do with your anti-Bush sentiments, because you felt it was so important you stated it over and over again. Had you simply mentioned it once in the general context, I could buy it. But not when your leading headline is that it's a *gasp* BUSH campaigner.

And I still stand by my comment. SHE'S RIGHT. Maybe not everyone wants to hear that, but *shrug*... SHE'S RIGHT. The American people are the ones it's up to right now. Washington doesn't move the economy and the job market, *the American people do*. And I can tell you right now there are a lot of people in both small and large businesses who can and should be taking very small everyday risks with their businesses that aren't, and THAT is the ONLY thing holding our economy back.

The American people have had it POUNDED into their heads that the economy is SOOOO bad right now still (and it's nowhere near as bad as it was for quite a while there), and the result is a mental block and handicap with how everyone is doing business. And right now that's really the only major thing inhibiting a bounceback. If we can get past that, the rest will roll along with it.


-- Primis.

[kuangning]

In regards to your saying it's irrelevant who stated it, you obviously didn't think so because you stated that it was a "Bush campaigner" no less than 3 times in the first 3 lines of someone reading the thing. So I find it very difficult to believe that this has nothing to do with your anti-Bush sentiments, because you felt it was so important you stated it over and over again. Had you simply mentioned it once in the general context, I could buy it. But not when your leading headline is that it's a *gasp* BUSH campaigner.

Erm, that's because that's the way the article (http://msnbc.msn.com/id/5549796/) reads. One of those lines is the title of my post... which only echoes the headline so when I'm looking through my archives I can know what the post's about. For the rest, all I did was copy and paste and preserve the headlining. Had Teresa Heinz Kerry said it, I have no doubt the headlines would have been just as bad, and I'd still be annoyed. And I'd still disagree with it. *shrugs.* Not that that's new -- we seem to disagree a lot lately.

[dormouse-in-tea.livejournal.com]

*mouth open, no WORDS*

[wind-wraith.livejournal.com]

I could tell it was copied and pasted, because I know your writing style, aiobheil and that wasn't it....and because my friends in the media are taught to write to encourage outcry and that was very much what that article was written to do. Might I add the author/journalist was quite successful in this particular case too *surprised expression*

I'm sorry to see the friction, but I have no way to help settle it without jumping in and taking a side, which I won't do. I have no opinion on this, and yes, that is my decision. No opinion.

Pity that instead of encouraging thought this encouraged criticism though...

[kuangning]

It's all right. Pri and I have our moments, but we've been very good friends for quite some time, and this isn't going to change that. I'm irritable, not completely silly. :)