Incidently, if you have any doubt that the masses will resist any serious austerity measures with every fiber of their being, take a gander at this:

http://www.spiegel.de/international/europe/0,1518,761201,00.html

It’s the will of the people.

The American people elected these politicians to deliver lotsa goodies – – and they have. Since raising taxes is hardly ever popular, but cutting spending is also not popular when it gets down to whose ox is being gored, in the end the will of the people is financial catastrophe. It’s not like we couldn’t see it coming.

So, let’s recap, we have a populace here and in Europe that votes for financial ruin, that refuses to defend the most defenseless (the unborn), that rejects any traditional notions of patriarchy and prolific reproduction resulting in low birth rates (a further future strain on the economy), that rejects most any restriction in the name of modesty besides prohibiting open nudity, that has high divorce rates, high rates of unwed pregancy, abortion and single parent families, that celebrates promiscuity, etc.

The economic eschaton is easier to see than the moral one. But it’s there as well, and it feeds the economic problem.

That is the will of “We the People.” If it weren’t, it wouldn’t be this way.

Now, which of you believe that the American people will come to their collective senses, face the music and reform their economic and moral behavior voluntarily? And precisely what leads you to believe this based on past experience?

Ok, probably not gonna happen. So what’s the dynamic emerging? Well, if the people don’t want to cut spending in anything like the degree necessary to reform the situation, and if they won’t vote to raise taxes on the middle and lower class (because taxing the “rich” at 100% wouldn’t begin to address the problem. There aren’t enough of them. And besides, higher taxes would further retard economic growth), then somebody is eventually going to have to tell the people, “No”.

Who tells the people “No” in a democracy? On certain broad constitutional issues, the Supreme Court can (But they can be overruled by constitutional amendment. Never forget where the buck stops). However, this is economic policy, not who can marry whom.

Who then?

Creditors.