Alaskans chose to jump off the financial cliff in 1983. The analogy would be that when one jumps off a cliff, the inevitable result is a splat!

Republicans and Democrats are blaming each other: when they are BOTH at fault. The only difference was who ended up with the state money they GAVE AWAY, in order to gain and keep power. Neither party gave a rat's backside about who got hurt in order that they got what they wanted. 

And the Alaskan people went along with it, each getting some of the crumbs along the way. They will fight like the dickens to protect those crumbs, so, you are absolutely right-the crash will be for worse because of the coming fight.

And the education establishment, that should have been teaching our young survival skills, was too busy taking the loot to do their jobs. What a waste of money! What failure of trust!  What an abrogation of responsibility! They didn't care that their expenditures helped doom students to a destroyed economy. They still don't.