its own and Americans are now on auto-pilot to become a declining welfare state. But don't be sad. Decline can be fun if you have secured a life boat. Look forward to 2012 and especially 2014, the first year that you'll have the opportunity to have most of your healthcare paid by others -- provided you relax a bit and don't contribute more than $90K to the US economy, something I'm sure will be very difficult to do for most people So sit back and enjoy as the American voter continues his predictable ideological convergence to the rest of the world and his economic convergence to the world average inevitably continues... The decline will prompt a gloomy electorate to vote itself a lot more additional "care" government packages ...paid by others... some other greedy fools that will keep working outcompeting the rest of the world so that an increasingly indolent American middle class can maintain its six times world average standard of living... sure... just have HOPE and it'll happen... The boat is going down, so might as well speed things up and have some fun, like burn the furniture to keep nice warm and cozy. What the heck! One last big party where we burn down the house will be fun. Just secure a life boat first... My forecast: In general things will go on slightly better than what Mr. Dan Mitchell forecasts precisely because people like Mr. Dan Mitchell are doing a great job in demolishing the astronomically