Don't say "we"

Maybe the secret to optimism is not to take any advice from bald guys with facial hair.

I don't know. That just occurred to me today after reading two economic crisis stories in quick order from my MSN homepage and the New York Times.
The front pageTimes story (I feel guilty about linking to it. Please subscribe) tells us how the relentless job losses may bring foreclosure to the safer, prime mortgages held by people who didn't borrow beyond their means. People like our family, for instance. Once this happens, the whole snake-eating-tail thing kicks in, as lenders are hit hard and the economy will be driven downward.
The MSN story appeared a day earlier. Entitled "Tough Love for Tough Times," it is a Q&A with Dr. Phil (Phil McGraw) about how we should deal emotionally with the economy.
I'll quote a little here:

How can people protect themselves emotionally?

Dr. Phil: We have to recognize that we have contributed to our financial problems with our own choices. If we are living beyond our means, if we are absorbing all of both mom and dad's incomes to just get by, it is time to scale down. The rule of thumb of having six months of living expenses tucked away in case of an emergency is a great goal. In many ways, it is lifestyle and decision-making rather than just amounts of available money that created this problem, and those same things can become the solution.

And later:

Do you think we as a society will fundamentally change?

Dr. Phil: I certainly hope so, because as I have said, we have contributed to this crisis with lifestyle choices and decision-making, and nothing short of changing how we measure success and live our lives will keep us from landing right back here in the future.

Note the pronoun. "We." As in "we have contributed to this crisis with lifetsyle choices...." blah, blah.

Uh, excuse me but "we" didn't do anything of the sort. We were too busy putting food on the table. When our oldest went to college we didn't raise tuition 22 percent each year. We didn't raise gas prices to $4 a gallon last year by riding our bikes most places and we didn't make all those cuts in our paychecks and health insurance.

However, Dr. Phil thinks we should take responsibility for them anyway.

I've grown tired of these guys who use "tough love" as a guise for whipping the middle class. When they say they want us to take responsibility, what they really mean is take the blame. If we actually took responsibility, we'd organize ourselves into guilds and unions. Somehow, I doubt that's what these guys are after, though.

Here's what I know: The Dr. Phil interview, juxtaposed with the Times story, made me furious. So much so that I feel hindered in my search of optimism.
So how's this for tough love: Whenever I see this guy's face, I'll turn off the TV.