The United States is a College Freshman

A college freshman, newly moved into the dorms and out of their parents' care, thinks everything about this is just awesome. You can do what you want, crash anyone's party, go where you want live how you want. You can do what you want because you finally don't have anyone to stop you.

And then you realize that the stuff you really want to do is expensive - but you want to keep on doing it anyway. So, you start trimming the fat elsewhere. You don't need to eat well. There's always Cup-O-Noodles. That's like a quarter for something you would otherwise need to pay at least a few dollars for. And who needs to do laundry? Keeping things clean can wait, right?

And then you start finding it a little harder to make ends meet. Tuition looks like it's wearing a bigger hole in your pocket. So is health insurance. Maybe I can skimp on them a little, you think. Or take out a loan and worry about it later.

And then later comes. And you still can't pay for it.

Eventually, you realize that maybe you need to accept the truth - you want to buy all the shiny things, all the gadgets. You want the biggest collection of video games, you want to crash everyone's parties. But the truth is, you can't afford all of that.

Now, you are the United States. You think you can do what you want, crash anyone's party, go where you want live how you want.

And then you realize all of those things are really expensive - but you want to keep doing them anyway. So you start trimming the fat elsewhere. There's always mass production in Asia. That's like a quarter for something you would otherwise need to pay at least a few dollars for. And who needs to think about investing in green technology? Keeping things clean can wait, right?

And then you start finding it a little harder to make ends meet. Your education system looks like it's wearing a bigger hole in you pocket. So is the healthcare system. Maybe I can skimp on them a little, you think. Or take out a loan and worry about it later.

And then later comes. And you still can't pay for it.

Eventually, you will realize that maybe you need to accept the truth - you want to buy all the shiny things, all the gadgets. You want the biggest military, you want to crash everyone's parties. But the truth is, you can't afford all of that.

Unfortunately, we as a country have not yet realized that truth. We still want to have the biggest collection. We still want to crash everyone's parties. We still are willing to skimp on things we need in order to please our whims and impulses. We, as a country, have been freshman for a long time. I think it's about time to graduate.