Like many Americans, I watched President Obama’s Town Hall meeting about the economy on Monday that was hosted by CNBC. And judging from the response I’ve read about how unimpressed Americans generally feel about what the president had to say, I must say that I agree. To me, the language was essentially politics as usual. The president blamed much of the nation’s economic woes on what he inherited, and that line really just rings hollow at this point.

Although the president was a bit more pro-business than I’ve seen him be in the past (I guess this is no surprise given the event was hosted by CNBC), he still suffers from what I call the fatal flaw of collectivist thinking. That flaw was expressed time and time again via the president’s use of the term “afford” when it comes to tax cuts for the wealthy.

You see, the term “afford” implies that an individual’s money is first and foremost the property of government, and if government deems it can “afford” to give you your own money, then it will let you keep it. If the government thinks it cannot “afford” to give you your own money, then it will keep it.

Now, observe the flaw in this mindset. It’s the truly pernicious notion that your earnings are first and foremost the province of government, and only if it can “afford” to let you keep it will it do so. I think this notion goes against the very essence of property rights, and from both a philosophical and practical standpoint, this idea is über-bad for the nation.

I think that unless we see some drastic change soon (not a likely scenario), this mindset is going to continue causing very real economic problems for both the United States and the global economy. Is the world coming to economic Armageddon soon? No. Are we on a very dangerous path that could lead to some very dark places? I think the answer is yes.