USA: A nation of takers

Are Americans getting more than they paid for?

America’s national debt now exceeds $15 trillion, which is roughly equal to the value of all goods and services the U.S. economy produces in one year. If left unchecked, America's debt will have catastrophic consequences for the future of the nation. How did we arrive at this point?  At this event, Nicholas Eberstadt of AEI will delineate the debt trend lines, exposing how over time, Americans have increasingly stuck their hands in the government "cookie jar," voting for more benefits than they are willing to pay for. Along the way, they have confounded classic liberal theory, which holds that the government’s behavior would be kept in check by the fact that citizens have to pay taxes for the services they receive. Why, and how, did this theory fail? And what can be done to remedy this flaw in American self-governance? Join Eberstadt, The Weekly’s Standard’s Jay Cost (author of “Spoiled Rotten”), New York University’s Lawrence M. Mead and Yuval Levin of National Affairs for a discussion surrounding these questions.


Video: www.aei.org/