Ebony's Pearls

>>We all could see that the day those credit cards and loan debts would be due. If so many of us could see this – years ago – why couldn’t our government?<<

And what I don't understand about this whole situation could thus be boiled down to your two sentences above. People have said for decades "We're foisting American debt off onto our children / future generations / etc." Well, sooner or later those children or future generations had to arrive, and here they are.