How low the standard of “not in ruin” has become!
Absolutely! American popular culture is totally devoted to a bestial life of eating, drinking, drugging, copulating, evacuating the bowels and snoring. A people devoted to a philosophy like that will not long remain free. The only thing saving us has been our oceans and the Mexican conqueror is not bothered by that problem.
You read my mind. It does not seem to take much to be satisfied these days. The bar of “new normal” is really very low.
No street riots
Gasoline in stations
This is freedom? This is prosperity.
We don’t have a barter economy? Maybe not fully but a lot of it is already going on just to survive the high taxes.
The Soviets eventually did not have street riots and had gasoline in the stations. They were not in ruin?
OK, believe what you want. As for me, I’ve lived the last 60 years and by comparison to about half of that time we look like ruin is inevitable to me even by your definition.