Freidman frankly seems like a bit of an asshole. More than a bit of one, actually. When I sent this article to a friend, they pointed out that the guy actually adopted the attitude you described when he married a billionaire.

Americans are actually an incredible people. They all work or hustle on a daily basis in order to not only meet and support themselves but to also do the same for other people.

Friedman and Brooks must both be satisfying a huge demand in the market place with their regular cries of dismay over the moral failings of of their fellow citizens.

The orations impart the pleasing sensation of being superior to those who have decided that Tom and David cannot possibly be talking about them. 

One consistent aspect of their harangues is the note of futility they quietly embrace. If more and more people are becoming selfish jerks, what is the social policy that could change them for the better?

Maybe the expressions of futility are also demanded by the market place.

We are in an age where Americans have been purposefully misled by appealing to their selfishness.  That is the cornerstone of GOP talking points;  "It's your money", "Government wants to take away your (fill in the blank)", etc.   The problem is we have been told that we want too much, and not taught that the cost of civilized society requires an investment.  

The government's funding was crippled by tax cuts that were too deep and too many, and now the blame is being sold as 'Americans want too much.'  Baloney.  We don't want too much. We want what we want to be properly funded.  You shouldn't raid pension plans instead of generating revenue and then tell pensioners that they are the problem.

Excellent, Michael.  That tendency to blame ourselves has been exploited to death.  Every right-to-work state got that way by convincing its citizens they didn't need higher wages or good health care.  Representation for workers was okay when we were an industrialized nation but not now.  For some reason, it won't work now.

People buy that crap, and then, because in their hearts they know it's not right, they try and convince the others who DO believe in higher wages, good health care and worker representation that they're being selfish for trying to rise above peonage. 

It's crazy, but so far it has worked.  There wouldn't be millions of people voting Republican if it wasn't working.  They'll actually cheer the rise of the one percent and fight their damndest to keep them from having to pay more taxes.  They'll justify losing social safety nets by pretending that people don't actually need them.  And the elitist press keeps it going because they're not willing to get into the trenches to see how real people are having to cope with a society engineered and manipulated by the very rich.

This paragraph deserves a replay.  It's, sadly, it in a nutshell:

The problem is not that we demand services that we won't pay for.  The problem is that the fruits of our collective labor are granted to the very few and the very powerful.  America's GDP is more than $14 trillion a year and climbing.  The idea that an economy that produces that much wealth can't guaranty comfortable working and retirement lives, with healthcare, for its population, is absurd.  We are not self indulgent, we are being ripped off.

We are both selfish and willingly misled.

Two weeks ago I was on CBS radio talking about the sequester, but what did the hosts want to talk about? They wanted to know why federal employees shouldn't have their pay cut by 20% - 40%? They didn't want to talk anything else.

How you can have a reasonable discussion if all anyone wants to talk about is GOP talking points, you can't, and this was a relatively liberal local radio talk show.

So Americans have been lead to believe that the government workers time is worth nothing, (thanks GOP), but the American people for some reason fall for it hook line and sinker, they literally believe government workers should be paid minimum wage. You only get respect if you work for wall street and are ripping them off royally! American's willfully believe the BS, why, because we are as selfish as we are dumb.

I mean I had a guy on the ferry, a friend of mine for over 17 years, tell me I was just sucking off the teat of government because my husband has been employed as an Engineer for 27 years by the federal government.  I yelled at him and made him apologize to me, but it is an example of just how dumb we are as a people. We are fucking dumb as rocks.

Yep it's just how guys like Friedman, Limbaugh, et al make their money, not by proposing solutions to anything, but by pitting us against each other and guess what we fall for it hook, line and sinker every single time, they suck as much as we do, because they are just a reflection of who we have become.