No country can survive if 70% of it's growth depends solely on consumer spending while it's leaders have spent the last three decades reducing the ability of its population to earn a living. Congress allowed businesses to get tax breaks by leaving the U.S. and by shipping our jobs overseas. Meanwhile, unions were destroyed and foreign nationals were encouraged to come here and take jobs for less money and no benefits. The result is that the average American cannot pay his/her bills and so consumer spending has ground to a halt. Couple that with the giant casino they call a stock market, and we have the perfect storm for the U.S. to spiral from a recession into a depression. Is it any wonder that Congress has a lower approval rating than the president? I hope that when things get bad enough, the country might finally wake up and do something.