Our founding fathers were very concerned over the lack of public virtue in the colonies prior to the Revolution. Without public virtue, we were not “good” enough to be able to handle or set up our own government. Over a period of three years, the people came to realize that they had to put aside their petty differences and come together for the greater good. This greater good gave their descendents the very freedom that we are in danger of losing today. What is the measure of our public virtue today?
One of the measurements in colonial times was a decline in the number of civil court cases. A quick search shows that the civil court case load in Rhode Island and Ohio has declined last year. Since many municipalities are cutting their police forces, we will see how this impacts the number of lawsuits and court cases in the future.
One of the few benefits from our economic downturn has been the resurgence of personal fiscal responsibilty. The following information comes from an article concerning credit card debt:
Credit card debt fell 4.1% to an average $4,591 during the quarter, according to credit bureau TransUnion. That marks the fifth straight quarter of declines and the first time credit card debt has dipped below $5,000 since the first quarter of 2002, according to TransUnion.
“Consumers continue to pay down their credit cards in response to economic uncertainty and high unemployment,” said Ezra Becker, director of consulting and strategy at TransUnion’s financial services unit.
Credit card delinquencies, which measure the percentage of debtors who are at least 90 days late in making payments, also continued to slide, to a mere 0.92% . That’s down a whopping 21.3% from the prior year and 17.1% from the prior quarter. Both are the biggest decreases since the recession began at the end of 2007, said Becker.
Our country was founded on Judeo-Christian religious beliefs that have been constantly under attack. However church attendance is on the rise this year which is another good sign for our future. I agree with Glenn Beck that our nation’s only remedy can be found through our faith in God.
David DeGerolamo
2010
I am not confident that America presently has the pre-requisite virtue to be self-governing. It’s not just our elected officials who lead -- we also have a lot of unscrupulous leaders in positions of power/authority in banking and other sectors of business management and in the unions, and worse, we have a lot of liberation theology and other tripe which is popular amongst our clergy.
There is a lot of money and power presently set against America’s hopes of rectifying herself… and until I see a lot of ousting going on across all of these groups of so-called leaders, I will remain somewhat skeptical of our future as a nation…but I do see a growing popular sentiment towards an American Renaisance, so I am not without hope.
LT
~Those who abuse Liberty, do so at their own peril!