"My beef with that article is that is again lays the blame at the FEDERAL government."
I must admit that I read the article very quickly, but that wasn't the impression that I received. The federal government used to be the people, but it hasn't been for a long time. Now our governments (federal and local) are made up of people whose sole interests are in getting re-elected and not making decisions that will irritate voters. Period. They're not going to do anything unless a majority of their voters insist. And no one is going to insist.
I don't know about the rest of the world, but Americans are totally unrealistic as a group. We've been trained that way. Take a really, REALLY good look at the nation's pacifier: television. Thinking isn't even an issue. All synthetic problems are solved within 30 minutes or an hour (minus commmercials). We're a nation of armchair athletes with a beer in one hand and the remote in the other. Soap operas (or whatever they're called today) are immensely popular. Un-reality shows are ridiculous. Every single "real" issue is sugar-coated, so as to be palatable to the masses.
So, why does anyone expect the Average American to do anything? They haven't had to, so far. The reasons listed in the article as to why they don't are totally accurate, IMO.
Americans have been trained to be ignorant, lazy, ineffective morons for the last 100+ years. Government learned back in the days of the Industrial Revolution that an ignorant populace was a far more easily manipulated populace. Do you really think that any govenment entity, anywhere on the scale, really gives two cents if their constituents survive ANY disaster?
(My mother repeatedly told me that snorthing in derision isn't ladylike. That, among other instruction, just never seemed to "take". <img src="/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />
Sue