So several million people failed to make it into work yesterday after the snow. And the newspapers are whipping it up into a big, juicy "Broken Britain" story for their own, rather obscure, reasons. The blame, apparently, seems to be falling mainly on the local authorities. Or is it the the bus companies? Or the tube? Or Transport for London? Or Boris? Or his health and safety advisor?

But what about looking at ourselves? People seemed to think that what happened yesterday was some kind of crisis. Some people failed to make it into work, even though they lived within walking distance of their offices. Some people called 999 because they couldn't start their cars. At first, I thought this was because most people actually couldn't care less about their jobs and so look at the first hint of an excuse for not turning up as something to be grabbed with both hands. (The number of people who stay home at the slightest sore throat is testament to this). 

But then I started to wonder if what we're seeing is something else - something more than a simple lack of commitment, depressing though that is. I wonder if, really, what we're seeing is a complete lack of any kind of personal responsiblity or commitment to overcoming anything that might be difficult. Anything that might require a little effort. It's also manifested in the converse - a refusal to deny ourselves anything that might possibly cause us to miss out on indulging our desires.

It reminds me a lot of the reaction to the financial crisis. The papers and media were full of finger-pointing. Who's to blame? Is it Gordon Brown? The regulators? The banks? The hedge funds? The traders? The property developers? The estate agents?

What about us? What about the people who actually took the loans? Who signed up to interest only mortgages far bigger than they could realistically afford to service? And not just once, but over and over, as they remortgaged their houses again and again and spent the proceeds? What about the people who made more from the rise in the value of their homes than they did from their wages, and instead of saving, just blew it on gadgets and holidays? How can these people blame anyone else when it all went wrong?

Did they really believe that this could go on forever?  Surely anyone stupid enough to believe in an endless boom should have been denied a mortgage on the grounds of mental incapacity. And, of course, anyone who didn't believe it could go on forever, but bought into it anyway, is as surely guilty of speculation and short-term greed as any Maserati-driving hedge-fund guru. The only difference is that the guru is more honest and more competent in attaining his goals.

So next time we blame the government, or the politicians, or the banks, let's try being grownups for a change, and work out how much we, ourselves, contributed to the problem.