The other day we were talking in here about how Tom Friedman thinks China is a gunny sack full of awesome because it can build stuff fast. Since then I’ve gotten a lot of e-mail about the artery-hardening of American economic life. The government’s heavy hand has squeezed the entrepreneurial spirit too hard. Public-sector unions parasitically drain energy and clog up efficiency. Government steals money from the private sector that could be allocated better and wastes it on silly, non-productive things.

Needless to say, I’m deeply sympathetic to all of that. Which is why I think someone needs to update the famous crying Indian “Keep America Beautiful” ads with a “Keep America Entrepreneurial” ad that ends with some iconic entrepreneur (Ben Frankin? Getty? Hershey?) weeping as he comes upon a roadside and sees another of these stupid “This road brought to you by the stimulus” signs that we have already spent $192 million dollars on.

For you young’ns who don’t know the original ad I’m talking about: