It's time to go Galt, folks!
I've been explaining the situation as if this were an upside-down food pyramid. Growth and prosperity begins with the raw material and manufacturing base. If it's healthy enough, we can have a thriving service sector. On top of this is government, supported only by the profitability of all the sectors beneath it.
Unfortunately, the base is dwindling, which means there will be less demand for services, which means we can afford less and less government. But, even through this ongoing recession, government has been the one and only growth sector. It's insane.
It’s the insane government salaries and benefits that hurts us the most. The average government salary is what? 65K? Add to that the free (or nearly free) health insurance, unbelievable 90% pensions, 20 year retirements, holidays, sick and vacation leave, etc. etc. etc. and you have a recipe for disaster. The only work these people do is come up with more regulations to shut down businesses or force them to move overseas. How much land does the government own? Things like parks, wilderness areas(means keep people and business out) take up HUNDREDS of MILLIONS of acres of productive land in this country. This should all be turned over to private business to run. That alone would create thousands and thousands (of normal paying) jobs instead of having thousands of bureaucrats running around crying about some three toed centipede.