I really like the commercial where the subject is , a chinese professor is addresing his class in the prc, telling his students about a nation that strays from its constitution and ideals of its founding fathers. How they keep spending and borowing. The last words are "now they work for us". Of course he's refering to the USA.
About the only thing for this nation to do IMO, is resort to isolationism for a few years and let everybody else make their own way for a few years. If we are so broke and borrowing money from japan and the prc, why doesn't the power shift in the un reflect that and let those guys pay for the world for a while? Are we so arrogant that we can't take a back seat for awhile? Better that than a total collapse. Our government is only Constitutionally allowed to own the property fo the governance and defense of our nation. Why were they allowed to exceed that authority? I would wager corruption. Corruption of government, corruption of the courts that back and enforce that system. Getting our military out of foreign nations and back home to our states and territories, closing our borders, stopping the gift to SS recipients who haven't paid into the system, and enforcing the 14th amendment would be a good start. All IMO of course.
Like anyone that spends and spends, there are a few things you need to do to get back on track.
first is establish a priority list of what you are going to spend your money on.
You do not need new toys if the old ones work.
second is to stop borrowing Money!
third is to look for way to increase your income. Increasing taxes is not the answer.
Decreasing taxes and eliminating rules and regulations that limit the growth of the economy.
fouth is we need cheap fuel and power! We need to drill, we need to refine, we need to distribute that fuel / power.
Allowing the oil companies to build refineries, to drill, and to distribute will put lots of people to work.
Isolationism is not the answer, heavy tarrifs are not the answer,
Lower taxes and regulations that make building and manufacturing, mining, in the US more cost effective are the answers.
Instead of yelling at everyone for their consumerism, we should encourage consumerism like in the 50's and 60's.
Get the Unions back to working, producing the best products and buildings.