Patientrenter: For the record, I’m not really Obama allergic. I was honestly hoping that he would be an agent for change and would offer the sweeping mandate needed to clean things up. Sadly, the events of the last few months have disabused me of that notion.
I also agree that the average American is the problem, but it’s not that simple, either, unfortunately. Marketing the “American Dream” has been a growth industry over the past thirty years and that period of time dovetails perfectly with the growth (explosion, really) of personal, governmental and commercial credit and debt and the necessary massive deregulation programs as well. The politicians, bankers and their teams of lawyers have been selling that “dream”, all the while hiding the reality that America doesn’t really produce anything anymore, but we consume ever larger portions of the world’s energy and money and expect, against all reality, that the bill will never come due.
Well, it did. And now we have to figure this shit out, and quickly. The fairness and honesty we’re discussing is necessary to do this, but I don’t see it happening and that saddens and scares me, all at the same time.
