America going the way of the Romans, Greeks, etc.?

David Brooks examines the debt culture in America and the deterioration of financial morals. When did we stop being able to control ourselves?

Some scary figures excerpted:

Between 1989 and 2001, credit-card debt nearly tripled, soaring from $238 billion to $692 billion. By last year, it was up to $937 billion...

The agents of destruction are many. State governments have played a role. They aggressively hawk their lottery products, which some people call a tax on stupidity. Twenty percent of Americans are frequent players, spending about $60 billion a year. The spending is starkly regressive. A household with income under $13,000 spends, on average, $645 a year on lottery tickets, about 9 percent of all income.

Fifty-six percent of students in their final year of college carry four or more credit cards.



If financial values had not shifted so much, I do not think it would have been possible for certain things to have happened - obviously, the housing crisis is the first example to come to mind, but I think it probably also contributed to the spreading income gap in America (be sure to read "The Rich and the Rest of Us" for more talk of that). I need to meditate on this topic more, but I'd be interested in hearing your thoughts.