In my view, we are already well along this troubling road. Consider:

* There are herds of people of all ages who want lavish lifestyles, but are unwilling to devote themselves to education, financial discipline, careers or family to the extent necessary, and end up either heavily indebted or relying on “someone else” (often other taxpayers) to support their dreams.
* There are the public employees who resist any call for improved performance or accountability, while they demand ever-richer wage and benefit packages, causing huge state and local debts amid the worst economy in generations.
* There’s the crazed Wall Street crowd that never met a risk it didn’t like … so long as someone else took the downside…
* There are the millions of distressed homeowners who point the finger at everyone else for their mortgage-related predicaments and demand government action of some sort, when some basic arithmetic would have told them that they were taking a huge risk or simply taking on unaffordable debt. (Lest we forget, the tea party started with a rant by CNBC’s Rick Santelli against bailouts of irresponsible borrowers.)