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I believe America (and all hope) is lost and it’s every American’s fault. I look around and I am very disappointed in what I see. I have no hope, no “light at the end of the tunnel” if you will.

We have a factor of problems that are destroying America, I will list several problems that I see no solution for because of human nature:

1. We want big Government to take care of us, we are no longer willing to work for the American dream (or freedom).

2. We now have an “Entitlement” mentality, just look around at your friends or people your age (if you are 25 and under). They were raised with “everyone is special,” they didn’t keep track of scores in sports because it would be “too hurtful.” Their parents gave them everything they have ever wanted….even if they didn’t deserve it. They “deserve” everything they want, even if they didn’t work for a College education or a decent paying job.

3. Colleges are spewing Socialist (at the best) Marxist (at the worst) propaganda and College students are buying into every last word because it’s “intelligent” to believe such idiotic lies.

4. More people are interested in voting for their favorite American Idol/Dancing with the stars contestant then researching the “best” candidate for President.

5. People are ignorant of their rights and even the ones that aren’t are freely willing to give them up to be “safe” or not to hurt other people’s feelings. I remember reading a study put out that something like 53% of College kids believe free speech should be limited…WTF?

6. The Government (for the past 4 months) has continuously given the Constitution the finger in order to “save our economy” and no one says a thing.

7. If you believe in small Government and taking care of yourself you are labeled a racist, bigot, uncaring, selfish, etc, etc.

8. I would be surprised if 8% of the population knew what was constitutional, what their rights were or why they were even given their rights in the first place.

9. Greed/Selfishness

10. The lack of effort to become educated about your rights, as long as you have a shitty job, you can come home to your family, open a beer, watch your flat screen TV, all is right with the world. Screw the second amendment, you don’t own guns anyway, they are dangerous, so no one else should.

How do you tell someone that they should care about their rights and their freedom when they have to give up all the free hand outs the Government supplies to them? How do you convince them to get off their fatass and research their rights/the constitution/the President they are voting for when all they want to do is come home, stuff their face, get fat and watch TV?

It’s human nature, I mean, who will go “OK, I will give up my Social Security from the Government to invest privately.” Or “OK, I will go get a degree/skill/education so I can have health care instead of stocking shelves at my local Wal-Mart and bitching about not having a good job while the CEO at wal-mart makes millions off of poor little old me.”

Americans have the victim mentality because it’s always easier to be the victim and blame someone else then to blame yourself.

If you blame yourself that means you have to actually work on your problems or lack of education in order to succeed. It’s much easier blaming the evil CEO’s and Capitalism because your life sucks instead of blaming yourself.

I have lost all faith; I am not sure where to go from here. I believe American’s would hand over all their rights just for a few free meals, a crappy health care system and to be safe from all those evil Muslims.

How do you change people’s minds when they are not willing to work for a living or blame themselves for their shortcomings? It’s just too damn easy to blame everyone else but you………and this is the downfall of America.

To all who are trying and working for their piece of the dream:

I apologize for my Generations lack of understanding and commitment to making themselves better. They have gone through massive brainwashing in College, and have had everything handed to them by well intentioned parents since they were born.

I am deeply sorry that my Generation cares more about Paris Hilton then the Constitution of the United States or their rights as citizens.

I am sorry that my Generation will be the downfall of America and ultimately we will be living like France (or worse) because I doubt anyone has the balls to overthrow our current politicians (drag them out of their offices no matter where they are) and elect all new officials and put term limits on all elected/appointed positions.

I am very sorry, America was a terrific idea and place to live but sadly the founding fathers never took into consideration the fact of human stupidity, ignorance and apathy.

I am sorry to our Founding Fathers and everyone who has spilled blood trying to make this the greatest nation on earth. I tried but alas, I cannot beat down the stupidity, selfishness and just plain ignorance of the American Citizens.

Any other time in history people would storm the streets and take back our country from the corrupt politicians that give 700 BILLION (more like 2 trillion) bailouts to crooked CEO’s, a Government that takes over our banks, insurance companies and god knows what else down the road. These people should be charged with treason against the United States of America (Barney Franks). Especially if this is true:

Whoever threatened this should be tried for treason and shot in front of the White House.

We no longer want to reap the blessings of freedom because we are unwilling to undergo the “fatigue” of supporting it.

R.I.P. America
~ 1776-2008~

I’m curious to hear what crashers have to say about this plan to deal with fighting terrorism in America. Obviously it’s still a state-based solution, but I think it would definitely be an improvement.

The basic premises, as outlined on the Reason Hit-and-Run writeup, are:

Mueller’s premises:

1. The number of potential terrorist targets is essentially infinite.

2. The probability that any individual target will be attacked is essentially zero.

3. If one potential target happens to enjoy a degree of protection, the agile terrorist usually can readily move on to another one.

4. Most targets are “vulnerable” in that it is not very difficult to damage them, but invulnerable in that they can be rebuilt in fairly short order and at tolerable expense.

5. It is essentially impossible to make a very wide variety of potential terrorist targets invulnerable except by completely closing them down.

And his policy prescriptions:

1. Any protective policy should be compared to a “null case”: do nothing, and use the money saved to rebuild and to compensate any victims.

2. Abandon any effort to imagine a terrorist target list.

3. Consider negative effects of protection measures: not only direct cost, but inconvenience, enhancement of fear, negative economic impacts, reduction of liberties.

4. Consider the opportunity costs, the tradeoffs, of protection measures.

There’s a common misconception that oil profits are a very, very bad thing.

This is in spite of a general acceptance of the idea that corrupt governments use oil revenues to oppress their people. Nigeria is a great example.

The thing is, if profits from oil went freely to private industry, they would be reinvested in an attempt to maximize wealth further. Sure, some rich people would get richer, but they usually employ an awful lot of people to get there. It’s fairly likely that more investment would occur in a great deal of places where development is sorely needed.

When governments control oil and when oil companies need to use their profits to bribe governments to allow them to stay in business or to lobby governments to squash competition, governments can use that money for whatever they want - and all too often what they want is to oppress people. Whether it’s through outright war and violence or through laws that restrict the way people and businesses operate in their country, this oppression the stable development that many of these countries need in favour of welfare and aid programs dependent on the whims often unstable regimes - if those living under the government are lucky.

Call me crazy, but I’ll take the profits.

(cross-post to Liberty is Good)