Some people claim there never was, never can be and never will be a land of individualism and individualists. The founding and spectacular rise of the United States will forever render this claim untrue.

However, there is a myth afoot today that America still is that nation. Just because America once was an individualist nation, it is assumed that it still is, and indeed must always be.

They want the budget to not only be cut, but be balanced. (Not specific cuts in specific programs mind you -- just cuts to "the budget.") They're not interested in numbers which prove you cannot balance the budget and maintain these programs as we know them. Their politicians won't speak to them honestly about those numbers, either. Those who purport to do so, such as Rep. Paul Ryan of Wisconsin, speak the truth about this in the abstract but then say, "We can still have these programs. We just have to reform them."

Maintain fiscally unsustainable programs? This is like saying, "You can't have your cake and eat it too. But here ... have another slice." Then you have the opponents who scream, "How dare you even suggest that the cake be cut into slices! Unlimited cake for everyone!" (Insert applause, cheers, and Oprah-inspired chants of “Yes we can—4 more years!” here.)

I don't know how all this will end. I don't know if there will be a collapse of the currency, hyperinflation, or some other unforeseeable economic calamity. I don't know whether the collapse will be slower than that, more incremental than that. Most likely, it's already under way, and probably was before the official collapse of 2007-08. I read the best economists I can find, the few who are honest about the facts I just described, and they cannot be certain either. The only thing that is certain is that this cannot end well.

My knowledge of philosophy and psychology tell me this much, for sure: Denial of reality, and evasion of plainly evident facts, never ends well. Sooner or later people, when they habitually evade and deny plain facts important to their survival, must "hit bottom." The concrete specifics are not always predictable, but the inevitability of the hitting bottom is.

Today's optimists are the ones who say, "The real estate market will come back. It always does." Maybe it will, but so what if it does? It's a government-manipulated real estate market (now more than ever), and like all government-manipulated markets (including the one that went bust in 2007), it will inevitably go bust again. Why? Because that’s what government-run “markets” do.

And, at present, there's not the slightest indication that real estate markets will come back. There are, on the other hand, growing and real indicators that gas and food prices are going up, and that old-style 1970s inflation (at a minimum) is on its way back. Interest rates will likely rise again too. What will this do to a real estate market that comes back, assuming that it does?

I am not trying to be negative. But the facts are mostly negative right now, and the truth must be faced. I am trying to encourage people to face facts. The fact is, we are in this mess for reasons. The basic reason is an unwillingness of people to face reality. More people still want to work and produce than not. If this were not the case, society would be at a complete standstill, and this is far from the case. However, more and more people don't want to work, and seem to expect that the government will protect them from the requirement to work. "Oh, well. I might as well stay on unemployment." There's a listlessness and learned helplessness that develops in a context where government keeps hampering the economy, making it harder for people to find jobs or start new businesses, and then giving people more handouts.

Also, more and more people want the government to do more and more things that people used to be expected to pay for with the earnings from their work. Health insurance is the big example, but there are others. Once big business is bailed out with billions of dollars, it becomes easier for millions of average people to say, "Government should bail me out, too." This explains the government spending free-for-all of the last 2-3 years.

None of this would even be the subject of a commentary if America were still a land of individualism. The question would not be what government should do, but what government should NOT be doing—and how quickly that can happen.

The ethic and psychology of individualism can only take so much battering, and man cannot live on its remnants indefinitely. This is especially true when so much that is explicitly taught by cultural and educational leaders, and explicitly put into practice by all the major political parties and governmental authorities, is routinely anti-individualist in nature.

Even as America celebrates the death of an evil villain, Osama bin Laden, who threatened the cause of freedom, the very government who destroyed bin Laden is hard at work at extinguishing what's left of freedom for its own citizens every single day. Examples? Taking over health care. Taking control of the Internet. Subsidizing the automobile industry so as to control it. Using the EPA to force people to use less energy and live less fulfilling, self-responsible lives. Before all is said and done, the U.S. government will do more to harm Americans than Osama bin Laden could ever have done.

The superficial, phony “battles” being fought today in Washington D.C. are not battles that would even occur to the average person in a land that was still rooted in individualism, self-responsibility and freedom. Earlier Americans would not recognize the America of today, and it’s not just because of the iPhones, the Internet and jet travel. Most Americans of today are not looking for freedom to pursue self-responsible happiness. They want the “freedom” to have government take care of as many of their needs as possible. They’re looking to government to discover, "What can government do for me?"

This attitude is condemned by some as selfish. But self-interest, rationally defined, is not the problem. The problem is dependence. Self-interested and self-responsible people don't depend on others to take care of them -- or demand that care as an entitlement. This would never have happened in a truly rational, benevolent country. Somewhere along the way, something went wrong in American culture. It happened before Obama, and before Bush. These awful political caricatures are simply the manifestation of it.

Many will write in that I'm being unduly negative. If you see evidence that America is still a land of individualism -- then show me. I am wildly optimistic about the potential of the human spirit, at its best, to accomplish great things. That human spirit still has more potential for achievement in the United States than just about anywhere else at present. America has continued to accomplish great things even while hampered by its anti-individualist professors, politicians, clergy, psychotherapists and other educated "elites." I have no doubt about how much further all of humanity can go if they would only set themselves free. But at present, they're not doing it. People have got to wake up. Waking up is the way to prevent the disasters that on our current course are coming -- yet need not come at all.

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