What is the root cause for the American financial crisis, the Gov, or the Citizen?

I don’t have any links to support my statements. I’m just parroting some of the issues I’ve heard discussed on NPR and news editorials from the past few years.

We can debate all day long whether policy decisions and trade agreements, corporate scandal and political corruption are the cause of our current economic climate, but there is another facet to this which deserves some degree of consideration.

It’s difficult to put a broad brush name on what concerns me. Perhaps the idea of an ever increasing sense of entitlement points in the right direction, but still, it does not paint the entire picture appropriately. Combine that idea with lacking sense of accountability and we get closer.

I’ve heared stories of:

- Drug dealing and prostitution rampant in American auto plants of the 70’s & 80’s. And workers who intentionally sabotage the products they built in defiance of antiquated and repressive management policies. Unions prevent workers from being fired for lacking performance, and thereby create an environment which lowers the quality of American made products. Hence, Americans have learned to purchase foreign autos because of better quality. I know that current American autos are much better, but the damage to the public perception was established long ago, and will take some time to turn around.

- Our education system is in the toilet. American students are comparatively low compared to other nations.

- Fatherless families, broken homes, and the willingness of parents to let YouTube and XBox raise their children are not helping matters at all.

- Americans idolize the lifestyles of Lindsay, Paris and Brittany, and are further encouraged to achieve it with lucky lottery tickets and casinos in every community. Casinos that were supposed to improve the education system with additional tax revenue. The only thing I’ve noticed from casinos is a rise in pawn shops.

- Our society has turned the victim into the perp, and the perp has become a poor victim who is not to be held accountable for their actions. Why not? If daddy hadn’t left and mommy wasn’t such an alcoholic, they wouldn’t have turned out that way… right?
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I could go on and on and on with examples of how the American dream has become a nightmare. I fear the list would break fluther.

I don’t even know how to frame the question I’m trying to ask here. I don’t know where to begin. I’m counting on fluther to help frame the issue. There is no shame in attempting to identify THE ROOT CAUSE of our state of shambles. THIS IS NOT A BLAME GAME. We cannot be so foolish to cast blame on any one issue that is close to our heart. The roots go much deeper than that. I ask us to consider that those roots are the results of seeds planted much earlier into the collective consciousness. Seeds of self entitlement. Seeds of personal greed and keeping up with the Jones’s. Seeds of living vicariously through idealistic television fantasies which feed the selfish shortsighted inclinations of Desperate Housewives, American Idols, and Next Top Models. Have we dumbed ourselves into oblivion with game shows which require nothing more than a lucky guess of Deal or No Deal without any education required to Be A Winner!

We parade the absolute worst of America for all to see, compliments of Jerry Springer and feed our minds with the trash of Howard Stern. We become arm chair judges of the most trite issues presented by Judge Judy. We have embraced foolishness, and tout that demon as worthy of our worship. We’ve built our Neon God. And now it devours us.

We call the other guy stupid, and proclaim our own stupidity by doing so.
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Attention Mods. This question cannot be framed without a rant to frame it upon. Please don’t miss the point here. Please allow others to contribute reasonable discussion before waving this issue away.

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Lastly, for those who wish to blame Gov for all our problems, and the problems to come… Are we as citizens not at fault for voting them in? How many of us actually research the issues before us, rather than basing our votes on a popularity contest?