We have been so quick to blame the titans of Wall Street for the current crisis of credit. For it is easy to censure the masters of the universe; who, with their eight-figure salaries and helicopter commutes from the Hamptons, loaned too much to too many. It is simple to hold responsible Alan Greenspan, E. Stanley O'Neil and other Brioni-bedecked executives; for they are powerful and the people are weak. But our judgement has been too swift, and we forget that for ever loan maker there is a loan taker, for every Collaterized Debt Obligation there were thousands begging for longer lines of credit. So easily we have forgotten a most fundamental rule: For every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction. More simply, it takes two to tango.

Culpability for the current predicament lies, of course with Wall Street, but we must not forget that an equal amount of blame sits on Main Street. Across the world, we have developed a culture of debt and throughout the great expanse of America, the expansion of the last twenty years has been through an explosion of debt. For every Lehman or Merrill banker who will lose his job, there were thousands of everyday people who accepted too much debt and failed to repay it. Banks do not foreclose upon the homes of responsible purchasers, they foreclose those who lived beyond their means. Pundits may take great pleasure in seeing salaried bankers carrying boxes out of their Canary Warf offices, but there sits only half the fault.

I am poor, not because I lack the effort to work or lack the motivation to succeed. I am poor because society has not offered enough opportunity to me. I was not educated in private schools or born of rich parents, therefore I am excused to being lethargic and subsist on welfare benefits. Needless to say, such logic is flawed - there are many eminently successful people not born of great stature or given great opportunity. Great opportunities are not given, but they are earned. Western liberal democracy is a meritocratic society. One does not need aristocratic titles or hereditary privilege to attain success. One merely needs to work hard and be innovative, and opportunity will avail itself. When we begin to take responsibility for our own situation, exceptional things proliferate.

The responsibility of millions of everyday Americans is evident and undeniable in the creation of the credit crisis and the inability to solve it - but we, in fact, choose to deny it. This is because we live in a culture of externalisation. So quick are we to blame others, that we do not first look to ourself for the source of problems. I am overweight, not because I choose to eat too much or lack the motivation to exercise. I am fat because McDonalds uses transfats or joining a gym is too expensive. Everyday citizens need to take responsibility for looking at short-term fixes, like debt, to long-term problems. The credit crisis may be the end of the American hegemony, but the inability of Congress to pass the bailout package will be committed to the annals of history as the great rejection of individual responsibility.

But it easy to blame others for our obesity, our poverty or, even our indebtedness. If we are to avert the next great crisis, wether it be in credit, health or climate, individuals must accept that they are primary cause of their situation. There must be a culture of responsibility. Blaming others is easy, but finding fault in yourself is immeasurably challenging. But the easy path is not the road to opportunity, it is the short-term answer to the long-term problem. The voice of an individual amongst a cacophony of many is powerful, and citizens even silently objected to the bailout must take responsibility for their small part in a greater whole.