BTW the fact that most peoples credit rating went in the toilet because half of them lost jobs or suffered pay cuts might have something to do with the topic

Never mind running up credit cards buying 4 dollar a gallon gas

Augustan and later Rome was called by Gibbon “the period in the history of the world during which the condition of the human race was most happy and prosperous”. Democracy is certainly no guarantee of either of those things.

I wish I had the dough to make this required watching at every US high school.

Warren, since you are a participant, could you suggest to the producers that they put the series up at iTunes Univ? And contact Apple to ask them to promote it as an inclusion on their regular website?

It’s ignorant people as Judge Souter describes in this 7 min clip. He decries what he calls “pervasive civic ignorance.”
http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2012/09/17/former-justice-souter-pervasive-civic-ignorance-in-u-s-could-bring-dictatorship/

“I don’t worry about our losing a republican government in the United States because I’m afraid of a foreign invasion, he said. “I don’t worry about it because of a coup by the military, as has happened in some other places. What I worry about is that when problems are not addressed people will not know who is responsible, and when the problems get bad enough — as they might do for example with another serious terrorist attack, as they might do with another financial meltdown — some one person will come forward and say ‘Give me total power and I will solve this problem.’”

“That is how the Roman republic fell,” Souter continued. “Augustus became emperor not because he arrested the Roman senate. He became emperor because he promised that he would solve problems that were not being solved.”

“If we know who is responsible, I have enough faith in the American people to demand performance from those responsible. If we don’t know, we will stay away from the polls, we will not demand it and the day will come when somebody will come forward and we and the government will in effect say, ‘Take the ball and run with it, do what you have to do.’ That is the way democracy dies.”

Raw Story (http://s.tt/1nCgn)

????????????????

Everyone is scared ****less over the thought of no social security, no pension, no 401k, no job security, no safety net, etc. People are saving as a means of survival and think/feel that if they can even get one rental property (maybe a mortgage paid off too!) they’d be thanking their lucky stars (while rates are still low!).

I don’t think these politicians and economists have factored in the positive relationship between the increase of savings desires to the increased probability of getting their “national fiscal house in order”.

These retards are creating their own frankstein knowingly or not.

It’s a sad day when candidates vie to be most out of paradigm in order to win election to a leadership position.

When supposed leaders have to prove that they’re more wrong than the other guy to get elected … you’d normally want to hedge your bets. We better hope the USA is resilient enough to survive ignorant leadership. Rome wasn’t, but that was a long time ago.