Sub Prime crisis

I was in a very interesting discussion with a bunch of rather interesting people this evening. I actually got to know what the Sub Prime mortgage crisis was that destroyed the American banking sector. Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae have been bought off by the government, Nobody wants to touch Lehman Brothers right now, Bear Stearns has been totally annihilated, and now there are talks of Goldman Sachs going down too. Where does this end? These companies are the cornerstones of the American economy. With an absolute idiot for a President and another one closely competing for the next Presidency, I really fail to see where the world's so-called leading economy is headed. Well, I do see it going somewhere, but I really don't want to believe it. For years, generations have looked up at the US, emulating and well, just sucking up to them!
I really don't know if that's been such a great idea now. Their spending patterns are plain stupid. They waste the planet's resources like there's no tomorrow, and they think that everyone else in the world except for them is to be blamed. The global food crisis is blamed on increasing consumption by countries like India and China, whereas the real culprit happens to be the excessive wastage of food by developed countries like the US. They blame developing nations for increasing oil consumption whereas the US happens to consume about 25% of the total oil consumed in the world, even though the population fraction turns out to be much lesser than that; I'd say, 4%? Are the Americans really blind? Or is such the tragedy of their lives that they just cannot imagine life without consuming so much of the planet? So whether this is a moral question or not is up to you: Would you rather emulate the people of a country who are hell bent on destroying the planet, or would you stand up and be heard?
Buck the trend, make a difference. Don't be blind. The real tragedy is not when one is blind, but when there is no vision.