One of the most observable yet understudied socioeconomic changes in the US over the last century, has been the integration of a credit system whose sum value while virtual, has been forcibly bloated to equal that which was actual. It is a structure which has inflated the value of American currency, the appetite of the American consumer, and made less visible the need for mindful economic discipline — discpline in general.  It is a structure that popularized passive budgeting, over-spending, and the carrot-on-a-stick philosophy that comes from keeping up with the Jones’. More importantly and obviously more general, this is a structure that changed our society.

The change has created a set of conditions that poise the US for a dangerous and likely disastrous economic retraction — leaving us the same old questions we had when we set-out. And yet these conditions will give birth to newer, deeper questions about the future (and who we are). For while it is arguable that this explosion of virtual wealth may have incited some social mobility or led to some amount of social progression, I fear both those advances however great, have also been as equally virtual.

Certain ultimate questions take shape upon the horizon: What social or cultural changes will lead Americans to the discipline needed to excel with the changes ahead? And: Is this generation ready for a world where it must pick between dinner or a movie?