Good point. Maybe it's like that illusion of safety. They think they are being taken care of because it's "the government". When they could do just as good and most likely better.

No. But they will adapt.

One of humans major advantages is that ability to adapt to change.

I thought about this more, and I realized one premise that it's easier to handle lack of freedom than freedom. I wonder how often that's true. I wonder if the same people who would have a hard time working out a deal with a doctor's office also have a hard time figuring out gov't Medicare forms. I'm not sure how often gov't running something actually helps those who can't take care of themselves.

I think we can't do anything but change our selves which is why I don't go into the big box stores unless it is an emergency. I buy all of my cloths I can from American Made Clothing online. The rest I buy American which can be found in stores in Wyoming and Colorado. I have found almost everything big I need cloths, boots, toothpaste for myself and family American made. I eat out at small locally owned restaurants. Remember we can only change ourselves and it is Tyrannical to tell other people what to do. If America sinks it will be because there are more idiots than real Americans and I don't believe that is so.

I had to give up three. I do not know where Chicopee is and I did not bother with Leagues, Miles, Furlongs, and Rods. (I did question the question: St. Petersburg, Florida or Russia?) However, as a numismatist, I am pretty good at Pounds-shilling-pence. In fact, anyone taking this test in 1860 in Massachusetts grew up in a world of SPANISH coins denominated in ENGLISH coins. Federal coinage was a secondary tier. As for the rest of it, in 1860 an 8th grade education was sufficient; most people had less than that. The upper classes were prepared for this test.

As for the general education level, we here would consider it abysmal. There is a "Twilight Zone" story about a man who seeks a "better time" and goes back to the 19th century. Sitting around a nice dinner table with the best sort of people, he is confronted with ignorance and prejudice so deep that he simply presses the lever and leaves for a different time.

We have made over 150 years of progress since 1860, the electron, the positron, votes for women, racial equality carried so far that the smartest people deny the very existence of race, gender and sexuality as non-issues, the complete demolition of the "socialist utopia" theory of social progress.

Define "handle".

Yes a widely educated populace is required for freedom and capitalism to persist over time. Slaves need not be educated which is where America is headed I'm afraid.

I would utterly fail this test. Partially would be because of unfamiliarly terms, but then it would be I simply don't know much of it.

I'm sure if people were applying they had some idea of what to study ahead of time. But still that's a pretty fun reminder of where our education has gone.

^^^ This.

" In America of the 19th and 20th centuries most people were predictably ignorant, superstitious, and fearful." Hiraghm's post is right on. Really Mike "most people were predictability ignorant..." Try taking the following HS entrance exam from 1860.

http://csaa.typepad.com/country_school_a...

And tell us how you did

Is that a yes or no?

It will not happen "overnight" but like all surprises, it will seem that way looking back on it. The REAL "American revolution" took place 1754-1763. It took another decade to work through the consequences. Change will come. And everyone will get used to it.

Me too.

Some would thrive, some would survive and some would die.

I think man is good.

I think you're asking what the alternative is for not being responsible for your own well being. If there's no safety net to counter act their own bad decisions then they would have to learn to do what they need to do to make sure their needs were met... or they don't. I want to be free to not interfere with their personal capabilities. Free to succeed and free to fail. No force.

Great question. If we switched to full freedom at this point the "average person" would go into shock. Most have no clue how far we have strayed. Given the choice of freedom or anything else I choose freedom.

Objectively and reasonably evaluate their choices of doing business and who to do it with in a way that would be in their own best interest.

Compared to everyone else in the world, Americans are more individualistic and more educated. American adults are MORE SCIENCE LITERATE than other industrialized adults. In another discussion here, I mentioned the "jante" the Scandinavian cultural imperative to conform. After two college classes in conversational Japanese for business, I worked for Kawasaki and Honda. In Japan comedians were banned from television for making fun of conformity.

It is true, also, that other cultures also have strong elements of individualism. Nigeria is a complicated place of several (incompatible) peoples, and among some, it is expected that you leave your family and make your own way. In Ghana, barred from owning land and hunting, women turned to the marketplace and run most of the businesses.

In addition tot he usual classes in western history, I had an elective in history of China. Hardly the first you would think of, across the centuries, when either freed from domination or just allowed to choose, people there exactly as you and I might prefer.

Just to say, Americans are special, but not entirely unique in every respect.

We are, nonetheless, a self-selected people, the most individualist from all over, willing to leave everything and everybody behind. And we all know that this is not the capitalist society we would prefer. The reasons why are complicated.

First and foremost, those best qualities were never identified in their own right, on their own terms. It is difficult to emancipate yourself from 2500 years or more of continuously reinforced ideologies. Many people here still believe in God and go to church and quote the Bible. You take the good with the bad.

Even at the height of the Aquitaine Renaissance, Italian Renaissance, the Northern Renaissance, the Age of Reason, and the Enlightenment, most people did what they usually do, while a handful of creators went forward. In America of the 19th and 20th centuries most people were predictably ignorant, superstitious, and fearful. But an ever-larger number of creators went forward to explore and develop new ideas.

We here believe that when presented with the right ideas, often enough, in as many contexts as possible, across the landscape of American culture, enough people will make the right decisions. Change will come.