patriots

some thoughts while reading how would a patriot act on the train this afternoon:

our government has expanded its power considerably over the last five years, as well as over the past century. where will it lead? i imagine there is always a tendency for systems to grow larger, more centralized, more intense and complex. what is the nature of this tendency? what are examples throughout history of nations growing larger, and eventually overstepping their bounds? what are the mechanisms by which nations fall (debt service, over-expanded military)? what about current talk of our nation becoming one of service jobs as opposed to industrial jobs? what does that really mean? what about all the tax cuts--extreme concentration of wealth, income disparity, loss of a middle class?

which is cause and which is effect?