Only we can do that.

S&P downgrades America. We take them seriously. Reaction sets in, and we inflict economic pain on ourselves.

The rating agencies also classified packets of junk mortgage bonds as AAA, we believed them and bought the bonds. Then when the bonds crashed, in the Inside Job narrated by Mat Damon, we are shown those same rating agencies sitting before a senate committee stating that their ratings were merely a judgment and they could not be held accountable for what people do with that judgment. And we don’t think these people unreliable rogues. We really think that because some bunch of manipulative over paid ass holes do a downgrade of some mythical 'rating' that the sky is about to fall.

Yes, we need understand there is no one somewhere else looking after 'society', if we do not do it, then ... Which means self-serving political positions, where I deserve the money not them, needs cease, only we can do that.

Yes, as succinctly put by China, the debt time bomb needs defused, not merely have its fuse lengthened. Which means our standard of living is likely to slip since we need live within the means of the economy. Some one somewhere is going to have to go without, those decisions are political, but if a function of crude self-serving pressure group politics, without reference to a greater social whole, then where goes Greece, Spain, and Italy, then so goes Australia, New Zealand, and USA. We need better personal political economic balance. Only we can do that.

Yes, we need put a lid on rampant welfare that is accepting that people need take care of themselves, that there is no endless pile of money somewhere that we can dip into to save them. This means we need accept stretching of wealth inequalities, for to crush inequality is to crush from our society the creative thrust to build a bigger cake. We need eliminate envy as a driver of social actions, and to teach our children from an early age these social realities within which they will grow into adults. Only we can do that.

Yes, we need manage fairness as an aspect of social relationships. But we need accept inequalities of wealth come with our individualism, and social freedom. We need accept freedom is not a ‘thing’; it is merely the opportunity to discipline ourselves, and not have discipline imposed on us from without. We need better self-discipline in relation to our place in a vision of the whole society. Only we can do that.

There is no causality in 'society'. It is just a 'bucket term', that catches and collects the conduct of us all. In New Zealand, we need learn that we are each one 4 millionth of 'society'. We need beware of losing our sense of social responsibility due the scale and the minute level of that responsibility. For those in positions of influence - teachers, judges, business leaders, church leaders - if we do not exhibit the balance and deeper concerns that go beyond our immediate desires, then do not expect anyone else to so exhibit it. Perhaps the revolution has finally begun in NZ when that rogue finance company director was thrown from a Parnell Bar by a bar patron pissed of with the show of wealth by the director when he had caused serious financial pain to thousands. The revolution consolidated when the courts froze private assets of another rogue when he tried to slip off shore. May we all have such courage to live such ethics to the betterment of our society. Only we can do that.

Only we … only we … and if we don’t … then may your God help our grand children for clearly we were not able to.