Life was much simpler for those of us who grew up in 1950’s America than it is for children today. We took for granted an intact family with a breadwinner father and a stay-at-home mom. America was the number-one manufacturing country in the world, and our society was anchored by a strong middle class. Yes, there were wealthy people in our midst; but there wasn’t the kind of distinction between the very rich and the rest of us that there is these days. With that strong manufacturing base came good-paying salaries for American workers. I still remember the pride we took in products that were “made in Texas—made in the USA.”
Those days seem long gone as I survey the American scene in my older years and consider what is on the horizon for my seven children and twelve grandchildren. It isn’t a very pretty picture, and I wonder whether the tide can be turned before it is too late. It is as though the termites have eaten away at the foundation of our house for so long that very little is left to hold it up, should a strong wind come along. And strong winds are circulating in these extraordinarily difficult times. Government debt levels are unsustainable; the bubble economy is rapidly causing the destruction of the middle class; there has been virtually no private-sector job growth nationally in the first 12 years...