cedarford,

Thx for your comments.

The pursuit of happiness is not the pursuit of comfort. This is the principal point of confusion in our society. We think more stuff will make us happier. It does, but only to a point, and then it makes us less happy. Weird, but true.

I agree that forgoing current consumption for future benefit is a critical part of the picture, as are raising children to be better off. What we didn’t count on was that we’d be so much better off that our children would view that level of affluence as an entitlement, not a privilege.

However, none of that undermines the argument for the pursuit of happiness as a core value. True happiness comes from doing and being good. Its pursuit requires work. It’s hard to be good, and requires sacrifice. There are big parts of our population that haven’t figured that out, but they will during this recession. It’s been 35 years since we had a recession like the one we’re entering. It will be a wake up call for an entire generation, maybe two. There will be a lot of pain, but it will not kill us. It will make us stronger.

And key to that strengthening will be the renewal of our commitment to what we have in common. That renewal may very well come through constitutional changes – as I’ve argued in other BC posts. And increased compartmentalization and redundancies, and more local government, can come from subsidiarity.

But if you’re looking for a system that won’t fail – that won’t “screw the worker and the small investor” – you may still be disappointed. These things happen because humans are flawed – all of us. And no system created by man can overcome this harsh reality.

All in all, however, the US has done pretty damn well, so I’m not inclined to throw the baby out with the bathwater.

I’m not a fan of Ayn Rand, and Hayek only gets me so far. But the Euro system is clearly unsustainable, if for no other reason than it being in demographic collapse. The US has a lot of debt, but it also has a huge GDP: $13T annually. Yes, entitlements need to be faced, and I believe will at some point, but the debt and deficit numbers you cite are swamped by our productive capacity.

We clearly need a consumption breather. And it’s coming, whether we want it or not. But I’m not ready to start a revolution, mainly because I’m not thrilled about their historical track record.

But that’s just me…

L3