Craig Cantoni, I have often appreciated your perspective, and in this article I must agree far too many Americans are "clueless and unethical".  We can thank the public schools and mainstream media for a lot of that, not to mention nefarious government officials.

HOWEVER, have you not read any of Walter Burien's extensive work archived at his www.CAFR1.com website? He exposes the vast hidden assets government is shielding from public knowledge with a two-books system. One book showing a zero-sum bankrupted tax money ledger the media is given, and the unpublicized Comprehensive Annual Financial Report that shows all assets. Are you clueless about this? The government is hiding trillions in positive assets!

Government considers us as livestock to be farmed out, and wants to (and has) spend the huge sums  paid into Social Security and Medicare on other things. These programs did not just "fail"... they were robbed! Government has the assests to cover these promised benefits for the older people who paid for them over many years, but government wants to dismiss the "useless eaters" no longer part of a work force that is largely unemployed anyway. Our destruction is intended and engineered, and the "bankruptcy" is part of the political theatre filled with smoke and mirrors.

Uncle Sam is a robber baron crying poverty while hiding vast sums of loot stolen from WE THE PEOPLE who paid the freight. We should locate and seize those assets to care for the elderly and disabled as promised and paid for, and end  all PONZI schemes  & deceptive bookkeeping at all levels of government! We must prosecute, reform, even abolish corrupt government! (Would any government be left?) Stop theft & recover the loot! We must live free or die trying!

Craig: I agree completely. I am considering leaving. Does anyone know of a better place, i.e., a more moral society? I am robbed (taxed) but I voluntarily stopped my disability checks 20 years ago.  Should I take disability payments as compensation for taxation? My wife thinks I should.  When I stopped payments it felt right, but now I am wondering if I did the right thing. I am still disabled but I can get by without the check. I am self employed at 68 and not yet financially secure but better off than most because of my fugal lifestyle and extensive reading of Austrian economics.