I have been thinking about this for a while, what happened to our country? There used to be a time of optimism and forward thinking after the fall of the USSR, but the exact opposite has occurred. Instead of embracing capitalism and self reliance we have become a society of dependency and content, with no ambition of future growth. Everybody wants something for free without working for it: free laptops, free cellphones, housing, food, health care, etc. This mindset never existed among my peers, but seems to be the accepted zeitgeist of this generation. Hopefully this second bout of the worsening of recession secondary to the failure of TARP will hopefully put the fire of self reliance in our society and get us back on track.