Peggy Noonan - America's Crisis of Character

DistanceRunner · Post by **DistanceRunner** » April 21st, 2012, 2:17 pm

Noonan: America's Crisis of Character
The nation seems to be on the wrong track, and not just economically.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB1000142 ... 08372.html

I felt that this would be a good article to address on this site to foster dialog. Is it correct for me to say that in the 70s and 80s, were American women (or perhaps American society, I mean) better than it is today? I recall reading a post on another forum or a blog where a poster said "How is it possible that we have the best technology, but the worst society!?" There are times where I sit down to myself and wonder, "what the hell happened"?

Unfortunately, I can't read the whole article at this time because it says that I have to log-in and subscribe to the site to read the whole thing. But even with a portion of the article, what could you infer about the future of America, and ultimately, the Western world?

zboy1 · Post by **zboy1** » April 21st, 2012, 2:33 pm

The country is going down the toilet, fast! Anyone with a brain can see it! I've never seen American's more pessimistic and angry about their country in my lifetime--ever! You still have your brainwashed, patriotic types that still think "America is the greatest country in the world," but I think more and more American's are seeing the writing in the wall, to be honest.

DistanceRunner · Post by **DistanceRunner** » April 21st, 2012, 5:51 pm

zboy1 wrote:The country is going down the toilet, fast! Anyone with a brain can see it! I've never seen American's more pessimistic and angry about their country in my lifetime--ever! You still have your brainwashed, patriotic types that still think "America is the greatest country in the world," but I think more and more American's are seeing the writing in the wall, to be honest.

Right, here's another concern too. Our access to food. More Americans will have to depend on the government just to have access to 3 meals a day.

Lastly, this article may not be correct depending on the election outcome of this year. If the top 1% of the country still controls most of the wealth, while 95% still don't have much, it would lead to the collapse of the middle class and an increasing dependency on the government just to get through our daily lives in America. This article is a full one, no restrictions on it.

http://blogs.wsj.com/economics/2012/04/ ... e_facebook

sushiman · Post by **sushiman** » April 21st, 2012, 7:15 pm

Yep going down the toilet fast both culturally and economically.

Economics is my field so I can say something about that, and it ain't gonna cheer up your day. People always talk about balancing the budget and crap, that's not really the thing to look at. To see the big picture you want to look at the net present value of all future obligations...which is beyond $70 trillion at this point. There's no paying that off, no way. US annual tax revenue is only something like $2 trillion.

That's like if you make $50k and have $1.7M debt, the interest even at only 3% will eat you alive and nobody will loan you more, its game over.