Ms. Megan points out the obvious.

And hey, you don't need a UC business degree for dat!*

Fundamentally, we're bumping up against the willingness of the American public to pay more taxes, or accept spending cuts. Some constituencies are going to lose. Republicans are going to have to decide whether they'd rather have lower taxes, or a stronger military. And Democrats are going to have to decide who they care about more: old people, or poor people.


I know, you want to say the answer is "both"! But those aren't in the solution set. If you want a stronger military, you need to pay for it. And if you want a state that keeps every old person in comfort, you're going to end up paying for it by gutting the parts of the welfare state that provide for people who don't vote much. If you think that we're going to somehow engineer a world in which we have either a military and welfare system the size of Canada's, or a military the size of the WWII Soviet Union's, with an entitlement system the size of Somalia's, you are not taking into account an American public that likes soldiers, and Medicare.


Me, I'd like a single entitlement system that takes care of people who are actually destitute and unable to work, not one this made scheme whereby America's middle class is supposed to get rich by picking its own pockets. You, dear reader, probably have other ideas. But whatever your ideas, you cannot assume the voters away. They are going to get in the way of your quest for the ideal world. So parties are going to have to start thinking about which constituencies they want to sell out in order to preserve the important core.

And remember, folks...
Ms. McArdle is of the "I don't have to be the best" school. The "I just have to be one better than you" mentality that has infected so many of her generation, it seems.

Me? I'm holding out for something ... greater. More real. More satisfying, in the end, for all of us.

She's been jaded by her typically American upbringing, it seems. I'm more with the up-and-comers, the "we can do anything we put our mind to" immigrant mentality.

Trust me, in the years to come, while the McArdle set comfortably fades to grey, so confident in their "one-upping" abilities that are taking down the country, it'll be we cowboys with our ideals and abilities still intact who the country relies on primarily for the "clean up" duties.

The rest of 'em? They'll be sitting on the sides, congratulating themselves at their abilities on having amassed as much as they did during tight times for America. Playing it safe ... and wondering why they're not so content and satisfied as those players still in the game.

Bet on it.
(Course, it counts now -- no guarantees for just gaming the system, and getting out from under safely, if you risk wrong...)


ADDED: Nice current events dig on the Somalis too. Heh. The "Tonight, thank God it's them, instead of you..." mentality at play again. (See here, if you don't get that childhood reference)

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*Ms. McArdle has written of her own credit miscapades, and her personal experience with dunning notices... Basically, don't spend it if you don't have it (and aren't willing to pay for what you've consumed) lessons we all learn along the way. (Some have it ingrained early, others need a bit of help applying what they've learned to their own special selves, it seems.)

UPDATED: Young (comparatively) conservative Ross Douthat suffers from the same Americanized upbringing as McArdle, it seems. He too is pointedly pessimistic: from whence will our salvation come?

In fairness, the president’s passive-aggressive approach is a bipartisan affliction. The ostensible front-runner for the Republican nomination, Mitt Romney, took a deliberately hazy position on last week’s crucial House debate, preferring to flunk a test of leadership rather than risk alienating either side. (The Washington Examiner’s Tim Carney quipped that “if you took Obama’s plan and Romney’s plan, and just met in the middle, you’d be in the middle of nowhere.”)

This leaves Americans to contemplate two possibilities more alarming than debt-ceiling brinkmanship. First, that we’re living through yet another failed presidency. And second, that there’s nobody waiting in the wings who’s up to the task either.

These are the upgraded offspring, raised in a well-bred manner befitting their family's successes. (Douthat's book was all about privilege and Harvard.) Here's what these kids miss though -- in not having to work their way up in the real world most Americans live in -- and it's plenty pointed as so many with their privileged backgrounds are currently ascending to their natural positions within the sick system that has permitted their credentialed rise to power:

It takes will. Character. True leadership (meaning people follow you based on results, not your credentials or the fact that you're the best of the rest, so hey, looks like I "won".)

The system will have a makeover, if it is to survive. And say what you will about America, we're a collection of survivors, if nothing else.

So when the Douthats and McArdles bemoan the future, from their privileged perches, it actually cheers me up some. The first shall be last, the last shall be first, and all that. Maybe merit matters.

Someday, I've confidence that a Somali immigrant (plenty here in Barron: look it up) who was raised traditionally, attending an Islamic Center for culture and family reasons, who managed to work in both worlds: the conservative, and the freely secular, will lead us. If not her, then another child who wasn't handed it all, yet who worked, observed and kept eyes open to others' failings, who is able to compete honestly, not afraid of those currently in powerful positions, and who makes change, real change. (Imho, Obama falls into the same "typically American" privileged, credentialed upbringing as McCardle and Douthat: style over substance. And how.)

It's the future, the immigrant America future. It's held out there always, something to better oneself to attain, not just to best others, but because it matters. Really, deeply, truly.

Sure, one gets discouraged in this day and age... You see those elected on style, not substance. Those rewarded for failings of others in the past (see affirmative action), not just out of some desire to level the playing field and allow equal opportunity for all.

The sooner the current system -- dysfunctional, credentialed, and ultimately, not working -- falls, the sooner we open ourselves up to competing honestly with the Asian countries for a shared future.

America, get over yourselves already. We're up to the task, we're out here, and yessirree, folks: We're waiting for the day. You can stifle freedom for only so long, but ultimately, the best will beat our "betters". Bank on it, boys...

(and don't bother asking the CBO to "score" that mentality either. You've simply got it, or you don't.)