alittlesense,

Are you aware that the net savings of Americans has slipped into negative territory in the past couple of years? Or that the average American is ill-prepared for retirement? Or that the price of gas will likely hit $7/gallon in four years? Or that we have run huge deficits in both our foreign trade and our national government, financed by the kindness of strangers -- mostly China, Japan and Saudi Arabia -- and if they start saying, "No thank you," to our IOUs, we are in terrible straits?

So, may, just maybe, if there's a hectoring tone to my post as well as much of Slate, it stems from the unnerved awareness that we are blindly walking straight off a cliff. When our economy craters, American Dolls will be the least of our problems.