The point I was trying to get at is that we are a country of social misfits, ner do wells, opportunists, etc. and it has worked out okay. Unfortunately I have not yet worked out my unified theory of social cohesion, and things do change. Without a minimum wage and the welfare draw an open border might not be problematic at all.
Underlying any number of posts I have made recently is a feeling that something is being lost here, we are undergoing some lessening of the human spirit, and rather than embracing our future are hunkering down in fear trying to hold on to what we have. Kind of like when a sports underdog plays with guts, determination, flair and surprisingly finds itself with a lead only to get conservative so as to maintain it and ends up losing.
When the people who succeed are government employees (the various pension fiasco's) , when rising through the ranks is done by carefully not making any political mistakes (Bernanke, Kagan, others), when being safe is the most important thing, I think we are moving in the wrong direction. Rather than a nation of pioneers we become a nation of bureaucrats, one might even say Europeans.
Another quote from that Buddha post I liked is "The whole secret of existence is to have no fear. Never fear what will become of you, depend on no one. Only the moment you reject all help are you freed." It kind of applies to this.
Not a rigorous presentation, that's in the book (that I'm not writing).
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