Perhaps the most shameful and embarrassing aspect of our current generational psychology is our belief in our entitled right to have it all at the expense of those who will follow us.
We bought into the liberal myths and are willing to destroy it all for 'free' healthcare and 'guaranteed' retirements that we don't have to pay for.
I think you give the US voting public too much credit for being able to understand the consequences of their actions. Consider that half of the population at large has below average intelligence.
I think at the bottom of this crisis is a natural instinct. The US voting public consists of both men and women. Collectively, womens' (and, to a certain extent, no doubt, metrosexual males') thought processes are dominated by the evolutionary need to nurture children. They do this by seeking out alpha males to bond with and become dependent upon for food, shelter, and security. In politics, the biggest alpha male is the typical liberal politician, with his or her promises of two chickens in every pot, or universal health care, or free preschool, or whatever. Therefore many women (and metrosexual males) vote for liberal politicans who espouse ever-increasing government mandated security. Thus they indirectly (through the liberal politicians) always favor anything for more government workers, such as stronger policemen and firemen unions, and better policemen and firemen pensions, etc.
That is, there is no rational consideration of the future since it has so far not been a consideration at the evolutionary level. There was no voting in the caves, no government, no laws (as we know them), no policemen or firemen, no unions, no pensions, and no taxes to pay for all of them.
Therefore under this presumption, evolution sets democracies up for eventual economic implosion.
Collectively I think the US voting public still has a long way to go before it becomes enlightened to the fact that it has converted its government into a self destructive Ponzi scheme. The painful truth seems to me to be that the US voting public remains ignorant in public policy and economics. How many women or metrosexual males can be approached in order to have a rational conversation about monetization, pensions, and government debt? From indicators such as the evening TV news broadcasts, few to none.
On the average, therefore, life seems to be still comfortable enough for the average US voter that he or she has no firm incentive to consider the folly of his or her own political convictions.
I wonder if our national history will parallel Chile's under Salvador Allende in the next few years. If so, the fabled 'interesting times' are just beginning.