Some have blamed the banks.  Yet, the banks wouldn't have been able to act so irresponsibly had nobody given them money, while demanding high returns, for them to throw around.  Some have blamed China.  Yet, the trade deficit would not have existed if nobody bought Chinese goods.  Some have blamed businesses.  Businesses have blamed government regulations and unions.  The answer isn't any of those, or any number of other excuses people tend to point their fingers at.  Just as Californians are the ones to blame for their state's current problems, so all of us are to blame for the decline of our country.  

The problem with Californians is that they "want services and not to pay for them"(Lewis).  The result?  The state pays for them and goes into debt.  The long-term result?  The people pay more for the debt the state has accumulated, or the state goes bankrupt, and the people are left to fend for themselves.  But this problem is not just with Californians.  It is with people in all 50 states.  In short, Americans assume that they can get something without paying for it.  This is a wrong assumption, and we today are reaping the fruit that we have sown for decades.

This has been going on for a long time.  I am currently in my mid-twenties.  Growing up in America, I could tell you how detached my generation was from reality.  It was common for us to think that we could cheat the system.  We thought we could get something without putting in the effort.  We thought that we could be smart about it.  And no one discouraged us.  No one hit us with a sledgehammer of reality, for fear of crushing our dreams, or bruising our self-esteem.  But, it may never have occurred to those around us that it is better to be harsh with us than to let us grow up weak.  As I am seeing more and more, many of us have big dreams, but no way to achieve them.  Eventually, reality catches up. We end up paying a fair price.

In economics, there is a fundamental principle that a society's prosperity is based on its level of production.  The more a society is able to produce given its available resources, the more prosperous it will be.  This scales down to the personal level as well: the more good a worker can generate, the more his or her wealth increases.  The logic is simple.  Grow more apples, then you can sell more apples, and end up with more money.  Collectively, if there are more apples around, then more people can end up with an apple, whereas before, they couldn't.  Better workers, whether through talent, skill, or diligence, are rewarded.  A more efficient society benefits.

But, my generation looked at where the money was at, which at the time was with management.  So, many of them decided to go into business.  After all, engineering was hard work.  Perhaps some went into law or medicine.  But, I went into engineering, because I like pain.  Actually, it was because it puzzled me how companies would tolerate having many levels of middle men who effectively do nothing.  In addition, I like a nice, hard challenge to work my brain a little in the morning.  Now, years later, we have finished our education, and have run into the real world, slammed into one of the most severe recessions since the 1930's (the Great Depression).  Now we wonder whether we should have learned more in school to be better equipped for being hired, with more skills people needed or wanted.  

Cheating in school is reflected in grades.  Though it may not show up immediately, but the unlearned material will accrue much interest in the years after.  This was not apparent then.  It is clear now, as we Americans compete for jobs with those from other countries.  We are now less educated than the competition because university did not teach us as much.  University did not teach us as much because we did not come in with everything we were supposed to have learned in high school, so they spent too much time bringing us up to speed, resulting in the omission of more advanced material.  We did not learn everything we should have learned in high school because...  It is time to wake up and face reality: thinking we can cheat the system only cheats ourselves in the end.  If we want to be successful, then we have to be worth it.  Why should people pay us more to do things when they can pay someone else less to do a better job.  Staying in denial is no longer an option.

Just as a plane in a nosedive cannot expect to upright itself as its nose touches the ground, so Americans cannot expect that there will be an instant solution to our present predicament.  We need to abandon our previous notions about how things should be easy, and we need to face reality for what it is.  Turning to the right direction is the first step.  Then, with time, things will right itself.  Whether or not the plane hits the ground and we all die before it is able to right itself is no longer the point.  We need to take action now.

Further Reading: The End of the Future