Here's a great rant (via Hacker News) on our current financial predicament. Written by a Wharton professor, "The Shallowest Generation" is informative, depressing and anger inducing all at the same time.
Here's his summary of where we find ourselves today:
The facts are: we have a $10.5 trillion national debt; $53 trillion of unfunded liabilities; a military empire that has U.S. troops in 117 countries and has spent $700 billion on a pre-emptive war that has killed over 4,000 Americans; a $60 billion trade deficit; an annual budget deficit that will exceed $1 trillion in the next year; a crumbling infrastructure with 156,000 structurally deficient bridges; almost total dependence on foreign oil; and an educational system that is failing miserably. We can not fund guns, butter, banks and now car companies without collapsing our system.
Oy. Like I said, it is depressing but it should be considered required reading. After all, you can only start to fix a problem after you understand it.