Our political and economic systems failed us, so it is no surprise we were also culturally unprepared for what was obvious then, and now: American prosperity could not continue growing forever. Rather than use our great wealth to help soften the effect of the blow that was coming, we squandered it on luxuries and gambled it away on get-rich-quick schemes.

As for your final question, the answer should be clear. When people are conned, they lapse into denial. They cannot accept that they bought into the lie, so they have to refuse to accept they were lied to and blame their problems on shadowy conspiracies and sinister villains. This is the origin of all fascism, Bowser. When the middle class realizes they’ve been marched off to the slaughter, they refuse to accept it, and they refuse accepting responsibility for their complicity in their own victimization. They need to find a scapegoat, and there is never any shortage of demagogues ready to provide one.

It happened in Spain, in Italy, and in Germany in the 30s. It almost happened in Britain, France and the US during that same time. And I’m afraid its going to happen here now.

What I don’t understand is why people who benefited from the boom are working so hard to deprive future generations of economic freedom.

I live in a retirement community. Death and sickness are all around me. And what strikes me most about my neighbors is their courage. It keeps me honest. I am well aware that no matter how good that report card is, each one might be my last.

I have come to terms with death, I don’t fear it, it is natural and inevitable. It is pain and helplessness I fear, and I see enough of that around me to keep me honest,too.

I’ve always thought it amusing that we always felt about the “Crackers” the same way they felt about the blacks: we felt they were uncouth, uneducated, violent, lazy, ignorant, criminal drunks who didn’t bathe very often. Differences in culture and socioeconomic class are often perceived as genetic, differences in race. It was one of the most important lessons I’ve ever learned.

I grew up with the constant reminder that the normal condition was hard times, and that the feeling that things were getting better all the time could end in a heartbeat. All through my youth, I had the nagging feeling “this can’t go on forever, we’re redlining this country right into the 21st century”. Although for me, it was not welfare spending and debt that loomed as the enemy, it was poverty, war, consumerism, waste, resource shortage and environmental degradation. That nagging feeling that the other shoe was about to drop played a major role in how I planned and lived my life, and I think it affected me in the same way it did many (but not all, or even most) of my contemporaries.

Looking back now, what stands out is not how bad things got or how quickly, but how long we kept it together as well as we did, and that things are still nowhere near as bad as as they could have been. In fact, we’ve still got time, and there is still a future, if we don’t do something really stupid.

Seriously, there’s nothing like a good report card from the doctors.