It is truly a case of what the reader brings to the text, in this case, I suppose. My habitual optimism about people's reasonableness led me to assume that Gre

It is truly a case of what the reader brings to the text, in this case, I suppose. My habitual optimism about people's reasonableness led me to assume that Greenwald was being a bit facetious with the apocalyptic tone and/or "decline of empire" talk, in order to draw attention to the fact that the fiscal crisis is more acute than many believe or aggregate government statistics might suggest, in a "death by a thousand cuts" kind of way. He also choose the examples that he did (complete axing of public transit, for example) to touch on things generally regarded as improbable in a country considered a) wealthy b) highly economically and technologically advanced c) generally providing a First World-normative level of infrastructure, public services and quality of life to a majority of its citizens.