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In contemplating who was responsible for the fiscal meltdown, most of us want to hear answers that make us feel comfortable.  But in all likelihood the answers you don't want to hear are much closer to the truth.

"It's like Murder on the Orient Express. At the end, every single person stuck a knife in the victim."-- Susie Welch, BusinessWeek 

"There are 300 million villains here and they are the great American people who went on a shopping spree they couldn't afford." --George Will, ABC's This Week

Few things cause as much current difficulty as our differences on how government should spend money and what you do to fix an ailing economy. We truly disagree with one another.  Let's try to use this space to really grab a hold and constructively disagree.  You can start up the trickle up vs trickle down debate here , or you might want to have a serious discussion on what we have to do to fix what currently ales us. 

As we launch these discussions, keep in mind that part of the problem is pandering politicians trying to give us all what we want:  Everything we want.  That makes us part of the problem.   Here is Pete Peterson of the Peter G. Peterson Foundation:

It's awfully easy to blame the politicians, and Lord knows, they deserve a lot of blame. But someone once said it's the role of the public to make it safer to do the right thing. And we've become a culture that wants it all, that wants it now and doesn't want to pay for it. Shared sacrifice used to be an American principle. What have we been asked to sacrifice? 

CNN's Fareed Zakaria on the economic crisis (emphasis added):

"... the solutions are readily identifiable. But they all involve trimming benefits, restricting credit, raising retirement age, trimming pensions and of course raising taxes. The effect of these reforms would be to place the country on much stronger economic foundation, but that benefit comes slowly over time while the costs are sharply felt now and by powerful special interests.

That's why no one will propose any serious cuts in spending or any serious increases in taxation. Much easier to give everyone what they want and solve the problem by borrowing, borrowing, and more borrowing. So the core problem facing rich democracies these days is they can't impose any short-term pain for long-term gain. And if we can't find the the courage to do it, it is very difficult to be optimistic about the future for these countries, including the United States."

Perhaps if we start wanting mature, long-term decision-making, we'll get it?  Could happen...{