thunder wrote in message
...
On Thu, 13 Oct 2005 18:26:53 +0000, Eisboch wrote:


In any event, Bush will be done in by the expiration of his term. Time
to
start thinking about a successor, from both sides or more.

I heard an interesting statistic this afternoon. Paul Harvey, I think.
Last year the US graduated 70,000 new engineers. Japan graduated
350,000
and China graduated 650,000. Related, more money was spent in the US on
liability lawsuits than on new technical research and development.
Seems
this country has taken it's eye off the ball, and I personally believe
it
has a lot more to do with loosing traditional values than it does due to
the policies of any particular politician.

I'm always leery of that "traditional values" thing. I'm never sure what
values they mean. ;-) But you are right, we have lost something. Someone
promised us a free lunch, and we believed them. Those lawsuits are a
prime example. People get injured, and they think they have won the
lottery. We want it all, and we want it now, like spoiled children.

That's the "Ka-Thunk" that went off somewhere in my (mostly empty) head as I
listened to this. It's a social change taking place where the concept of
earning something by working hard is being replaced with "It's owed to me".
It's a change whereby if you feel you've been wronged by a merchant - you
sue him, rather that accepting the fact that you learned a lesson and won't
do business with him again. It's a change where paying your dues is not
necessary, you are "entitled" simply because you exist. Its a change
whereby "I" has become paramount rather than "we". That's what I meant by
loosing traditional values. It may be inevitable as a evolutionary step of
our society, but I think it will be the primary reason of our downfall as a
nation if not corrected, rather than the actions of politics and
politicians.

Eisboch