It appears that our economy was based on people making poor economic decisions (buying on credit, getting loans they couldn’t afford). We appear to be stuck; either people make bad decisions and screw up their personal financial situation, or they make good decisions and all the industries that benefit from bad decisions (which appears to be most of the economy) are wrecked.
It’s a sobering thought to consider that my relative frugality, if applied to everyone, would almost surely cause national economic meltdown. I wonder if someday the President will implore people to spend beyond their means, to please max out their credit cards as part of their patriotic duty…