I fear we've blown it with our children

Many adults point to how our generation (born in the 50's) made lots of mistakes and yet things turned out OK. They do this to assure me that todays generation will be OK too. I'm not so sure.

If you look at what's happened since Obama has been in charge, we have taken a dramatic turn (after a long, sustained trajectory in this direction) away from financial personal responsibility and have created an entitlement generation.

Things Obama did:

1. Continued and strengthen the bail-out of wall street and banks begun (wrongly) by the Bush administration. Message: "You can be too big to fail and the government -- i.e., taxpayers -- will bail you out. So keep it up! Good work."
2. Bailed out credit card holders. Those poor people who had no choice but to run up absurdly high credit card bills. Message: "You don't have to worry about how much you spend. The government will protect you from your stupidity."
3. Mortgage Bail-out. He's pushed to change the nature of home mortgages so that, even if you were stupid enough to buy a house you couldn't afford, you can settle with the bank and roll back your loan so you can afford it. Message: "Don't worry about the fine print. You probably don't understand it anyway. The government will protect you. Go out and freely spend as if there's no tomorrow. The fed's will pay for anything you can't afford"
4. Most recently, in his campaign tour which is being funded by taxpayers, he's legislated changes to the student loan program so that the young, strongest demographic, will have reduced payments and the loans will be cancelled if the loan lasts more than 20 years. And, by the way, no bank is allowed part of the new student-loan program; it's completely run by the government and like social security, it will be self funded. Message: "Spend as much money as you want on your education and don't worry about if your degree will make you employable. Education is intrinsically important and you deserve it. Those that are unlucky enough to actually make money will happily fund those who don't get jobs."

If I was a young person, I'd love Obama. He's just like the big 'Daddy' in government. He takes me to lunch and doesn't ask me to pay. What a great guy. Of course I'll continue to vote for people like that.

Pat Buchanan wrote a book recently where he too fears that our culture has swung away from our roots of self-reliance and independence. He predicts that the same craziness we see in Greece is only a decade away from the US. The idea that the people would protest a government who can't afford to pay it's bills by complaining that that government should not cut costs such as pensions and other entitlements is ignorant at best and sheer lunacy at worse.

Like the recent Occupy San Francisco guy who was complaining that defecation and urination are a human need and so the city must provide port-a-potty's or accept that the protesters will defecate on the lawn. Just one tiny example of how widespread and pervasive the entitlement mentality has become.

Another example is a conversation I had the other day with a smart, hard-working professional. He said he didn't see why he should buy earthquake insurance because if there was a severe earthquake, there would be government programs (money) to help re-build. Translation: "I don't need to be responsible because the government will take care of me."

This thinking was NOT the majority held position by most Americans throughout our history. Yet, I believe it is now the prevailing thought in the US today.

And Obama's actions will only make matters worse.