"From that moment on, the majority always votes for the candidates who promise the most benefits…." The result of this "is that every democracy will finally collapse due to loose fiscal policy." This is then "always followed by a dictatorship."

The warning also holds that the "average age of the world's greatest civilizations" has historically "been about 200 years." Given that the United States is now 250 years old and $39-trillion fiscally loose, what should be said about her?

Commentator and ex-State Department official Ron MacCammon has his answer. "Our republic is falling gradually," he wrote earlier this week. "Total collapse will be sudden."

MacCammon says that the United States' problem is, essentially, "the tragedy of the commons." That is, when "people pursue short-term interests at a shared resource's expense, they eventually destroy it for everyone," he explains. "Fisheries collapse this way. Pastures go barren. And right now, something similar is happening to the American republic." For when everyone is responsible, no one is responsible.

"What's being depleted isn't land or water," MacCammon continues. "The constitutional ecosystem — the institutional integrity, fiscal discipline, and civic trust that make American self-governance possible — is what's running dry."

Like a Drunken Sailor

Consider finances, an all-important factor in economic soundness. Washington behaves as if it has a money tree. And why not? Imagine a politician who considered being frugal; i.e., not "bringing home the bacon" for his state or district. It's not just that he might lose to a challenger who promised freebies. It's also that he knows the other 534 legislators would still raid the treasury. So he might as well join the frenzy. Those paying the tab, largely the unborn, can't complain.