Besides the endlessly annoying and murderous Jihadists, America's biggest problem is this, as described in the CSM: 1 in 2 Americans now receive income from government programs.
Getting past that magic 50% has been the goal of Leftists since the 1930s. Why? Because the recipients vote. And if you add up the numbers who receive program money, the number of govt employees, and the number receiving major non-income benefits (like Medicare), you have a heck a a big number getting at least part of their living from the government teat - meaning from their neighbors' labor.
Incrementally, inch by inch, the American habits of self-sufficiency, resourcefulness, and independence have been whittled away to the point that many people are no longer ashamed to take the money of strangers. Indeed, to the point that they feel "entitled" to it, which I suspect is a psychological maneuver to deny the humbling reality that they are receiving charity. Social Security made it seem OK to older folk by concealing the fact that it was their kids who were paying them the money.
Fortunately, there are still large islands of folks who do their best to pursue the American ideals. The problem is that they are getting stuck paying the bills for the other half. As the population ages and people breed less, that ratio will get worse, and the "two Americas" will begin feeling like the givers and the takers.
That is not a good foundation for a culture or a civilization.
Editor's Note:
I see that our friend Coyote was thinking along the same lines, but mainly from the standpoint of taxation. As he notes in his piece A Nation of Slaveholders:
Meanwhile, Ari Fleischer writes in today’s WSJ (sub req) that the top 1% of income earners pay 37% of total income taxes, the top 10% of income earners pay 71% of total income taxes, and the top 40% of income earners pay 99% of total income taxes.
and
The second greatest failing of the Constitution as originally drafted (the first being legality of slavery) is the lack of clear protections for property and commerce. As a result, the only protection we have against full confiscation of everything we own is the whim of the electorate. Now that a clear majority of voters are on the receiving end of money confiscated from a minority of voters, how good is this last protection?
We have become a nation of slaveholders, with the majority holding the productive minority in bondage. Inserting government in the middle of this process as an agent, so the recipients of this slave labor don't have to get their own hands dirty, does not change the nature of the relationship one bit. It just pretties things up for our conscience.
A further comment from The Barrister:
I am sure that Coyote's metaphor was intentionally hyperbolic, but his point is correct. Furthermore, I believe that the only way to eliminate the division between the donors and the recipients is a flat tax, so that everyone can be a full participant in the American enterprise: all in the same boat.
