When was the last time the government asked for our permission to use tax payer's money in Iraq or Afghanistan or any place else for that matter? Why does the government considers the use our money in those places to be appropriate but not appropriate to be used in the United States? 

Complicating our problems is greed.  The housing bubble was created by such greed.  Every bubble created during the past 20 years was the results of greed, either by a few individuals in the right place and job position (WorldCom & Enron), by individuals looking to make a quick dollar at the expense of others.  People or I should say greedy people who bought houses, not necessarily to live in them; some of them never did, with the hope of turning a quick profit created the current financial situation, along with many of those that took out home equity loans.  While on the other side of the equation, the bankers and mortgage lenders (with their own greed) fueled the appetite of the greedy people by providing them with no money down mortgages and not doing the necessary due diligence to make sure that borrowers could actually pay the money back.   Of course mortgage lenders and bankers made a ton of money as well in the process, due to their own greed.

Yet, on the other side of all the turbulence, there are people, intentionally instigating panic and fear, driving companies into bankruptcy, by spreading rumors and lies so they can make a quick profit from their downfall.  The government did take some action by stopping the shorting of hundreds of companies stocks, but only after the extensive un-reversible damage done to many companies.   However, this action is only temporary in nature and once it ends, the bad guys will be back at their game again.

Several weeks ago we experienced a few examples of this panic and fear impact.  The attack started with Lehman Brothers and the bad guys then set their eyes on Merrill Lynch to go after, forcing Merrill to hook- up with Bank of America.  Of course, the same bad guys have a list of companies to go after each time one fails.  Unfortunately for the average investor, we all ultimately pay the price for the greed of a few.  Some people have lost their entire life savings during the past 20 years while others have lost a great deal of money due to the action of those who instill panic and fear into the market place and our society.   Yes, the situation is not pretty, but our banking and financial system is not going to stop functioning tomorrow unless we allow the bad guys to continue negatively influencing the daily outcome of the stock market or of individually selected companies, through their manipulation of  financial instruments that are designed to offset losses when markets are heading down during the normal process.  Instead, they are using those instruments to pressure the market into the direction they want to assure them of a winning outcome in either direction.  

Put all of the above problems together, along with the lack of a compressive, for all medical healthcare system, and the problems the Social Security systems will be facing in a few years and what do you get? You get a country made up of homeless people, where the sick and poor will not be able to afford medical care, food or even a roof over their heads.  Unless something drastic is done to stop the ongoing downward spiral and decaying of our social/economic structure, I foresee a future where we will have to depend on the goodwill and handouts from other countries.  That's really a shame.  I hate seeing us like this.