In chapter 1, “The Crisis of Profligacy,” Bacevich portrays Americans as wanting too much. We are depicted as a society that is bedazzled with a culture of “full of rights”. We as Americans expect others to accommodate to our lifestyle because we always want more. It describes our modern society, who ever has the most money wins, work and blow it on useless things and forgetting the meaning of life in possessions. It has allowed americans to consume without limitations. As a result we contribute to creating more problems. For example the high cost of foreign commitments put the U.S in increasingly high debt. By 1970 the crisis of profligacy was already causing distress in American households. Americans could either control their hunger for more or learn to live within their means. In 1979 …show more content…
Generally there is an expectation that the president is like a hero that can wield power to solve any problem economically and so on. Now when it comes to voting what people seem to think is important is who sounds better. Candidates are put through two years of non sense and all they want is to be in power , they want the money. In other words Washington has become a centralized government. Bacevich gives a great example of imperial presidency was the election of 2006 it was going on at the time of the Iraq war. The democratic party said to elect them and they would put an end to the war. Therefore Americans handed them the power they asked for . and the Democratic party did not put an end to the war on the other hand the Democratic party basically did was vote the money to the president Bush needed to continue the war. The U.S doesn't learn the lessons we should learn from our past wars. Congress should be a coequal branch and should respect the constitutional responsibilities. But instead congress has shoved so much authority at the