Some more thoughts about politics, the welfare state and related matters:

Our national debt is the most useful measure of both the virtue of our leaders and of the people they lead. No one could look at that debt, which now exceeds our GDP, in peacetime no less, and conclude that elected American officials have behaved responsibly.

But lest we claim failures of leadership only, we might remember that politicians prosper (get re-elected) by giving voters what they want. Contrary to populist rhetoric, they tend to be overly rather than insufficiently responsive to public demands.

We, the people, are ultimately to blame for our dismal fiscal circumstances because we became addicted to government and forgot it had to be paid for.

A strong correlation might exist for advanced, post-industrial nations between deficits and accumulating debt on one hand and declining marriage and fertility rates on the other. As fewer people get married and fewer kids arrive, concern over the long-term welfare, requiring some attention to fiscal solvency, is gradually replaced with short-term gratification reflected in deficits and debt.

A society which has fewer kids and grandkids isn't going to worry as much about sticking kids and grandkids with the tab.

National debt is probably also driven, and the concept of citizenship seriously devalued, when nearly half of the adult population pays no federal........

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