rj1

Ah, but what happens when the Stupid Businessmen realize they're being stupid and the game stops? Will the U.S. government and its citizenry heavily decrease expenditures, heavily increase taxes, or both? It can't do what it's doing now, which is increase spending and decrease taxes. The Wizard of Oz can pull a few levers to fool people for awhile, but it can't keep Dorothy from looking over and seeing it's all just a little man playing smoke and mirrors.

American society by its very nature is very relative. We base on whether we are satisfied with our life or not based on our neighbors, "keeping up with the Joneses", as is conveniently named the lady in your quoted text.

Not to mention the idea of sacrifice and of saving for a greater tomorrow is completely foreign to the majority of people in this country. There are a lot of people in this country that would publicly say they are 100% behind the Iraq War, but if you asked them to sacrifice and help the country by going over to Iraq, they would be among the first ones to move up to Canada. Also, there are a lot of people that like to flaunt by buying a house that is too large or buying one too many luxury car, or in government's case voting for that new stadium for the pro basketball team, or voting to go war while not calling upon new money to actually pay for it.

Heck, my peers look at me weird because I treat debt as evil. I hate using credit cards, I use them occasionally by necessity, but I prefer paying in cash cause it sublimenally reminds me that this is money I earned working hard that I am giving up for this product. It's something my parents made sure they taught me cause when I was an infant my dad was an enlisted Marine during Reagan's presidency, worked 16 hours a day on Harriers and then A-4's, yet still qualified for welfare despite not applying or taking it just cause he abhorred the concept, and had to eat chicken liver cause it was all he could afford.

And no one in government has this point of view. They think things will always be good because they were good yesterday and they were good the day before. They have no semblance of long-term planning. And the voting public is just as ignorant. So I ask you, who's the stupid one in your quoted text, Evil/Stupid Businessman for eventually realizing that he is the one propping up Mrs. Jones, or Mrs. Jones for having no clue that she was overcompensated and not preparing beforehand incase hard times came?