Developing a culture of responsibility

An item in todays headlines says: "The Growing Burden of Teacher Pensions"

It's a "burden" those teacher pensions. Yea, yea, sure we hired them. We promised them pensions, but it's a "burden" to live up to that. . . uh. . . ok, I'm gonna go ahead and use the "R" word that nobody wants to hear these days . . . RESPONSIBILITY.
So now we find ourselves in a little bit of a financial jam and all of a sudden it's a "burden." I guess we're gonna let corporations who find themselves in a financial jam reclassify their responsibilities as a "burden." Oh wait, we're already letting them do that. Ok, how about this. . . I run up $10k on a credit card and then I can't pay because of a "financial jam (like $10k on a credit card)," can I classify it as a burden and not take responsibility for it? Well, according to some advertisements I see, I'll only have to pay "pennies on the dollar!"
WTF is wrong with the proles and this country in general? Will we ever get back to where people, government, and corporation take responsibility for their actions. Where they live up to their commitments?
Maybe if we developed a little bit of a culture of responsibility in this country we'd all be able to live a lot better lives.
Pay your debts. Know how you're going to pay them before you take them out or just don't take them out. The same general idea goes for gov't and business.
If you make a promise, live up to it. There are extenuating circumstances, but a little bit of financial hardship is not one of them. Serious illness, death, horrible disaster yea, but normal things that one ought to expect in life are not reasons to back out of your responsibility.