America isn't in decline until Thomas Sowell says so...Gulp!

America, it seems, is always in decline.

Searching through Amazon.com reveals plenty of works arguing that America's best days are behind her. From the 1974 novel The Decline and Fall of America; to William Dietrich's 1991 book, In the Shadow of the Rising Sun: The Political Roots of American Economic Decline, about Japan's inevitable surpassing of America economically; to the more recent The Death of the West by the always upbeat Patrick Buchanan, most such works of gloom-and-doom have usually been followed by years of tremendous peace and prosperity. After a while it is hard to take any book about American decline seriously.

However, if there a reason to treat the idea of our society's fall with grave concern, it is that a book has now been written about it by Thomas Sowell.

Entitled Dismantling America, it is a collection of some of his more recent newspaper columns grouped into five sections -- government policies, political issues, economic issues, cultural issues, and legal issues -- with some added commentary beginning each section.

Sowell's thesis is encapsulated in the following passage:

The collapse of a civilization is not just the replacement of rulers or institutions with new rulers and new institutions. It is the destruction of a whole way of life and the painful, and sometimes pathetic, attempts to begin rebuilding amid the ruins.

Is that where American is headed? I believe it is. Our only saving grace is that we are not there yet.

How about putting the Post Office up for auction?

US Postal Service (USPS) decline in mail volume 2007-09: 36 billion pieces (17%)

USPS losses, 2007-2009: $12 billion

USPS career workforce reductions, 2007-2009: 84,000

USPS unfunded pensions and retiree health obligations and other liabilities: $90 billion

Potential cumulative USPS losses: $238 billion

Employee compensation and benefits as percentage of USPS costs: 80%