I always knew that someday I’d write this column.

All it took was a comment from Jamie Campalongo, CEO of Pittsburgh Transportation Company (a.k.a., the cab company) to get things started.

A guest on my show (and a terrific one, at that … I really liked this guy), Jamie talked about how difficult it was to find “Anyone … drivers, cabbies, dispatchers” who could pass a drug test prior to beginning employment with any of his companies.

(By the way, if you think you’re not renting from “Yellow Cab” when you call, say, “Colonial Cab” or “People’s cab”, think again … if it’s a cab company and if it’s in Allegheny County, then Pittsburgh Transportation almost certainly owns it.)

Anyway, this (comment about drug use) took me to Lee Taddonio’s comment in a recent news article wherein he was quoted as saying, “four out of ten manufacturing job applicants are turned down” … because of drugs in their urine.

So, I dug up Sir Edward Gibbons’ famous “History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire” (which was published in 1776) … to see just what parallels might exist between our present U.S. society and that of the Roman Empire in her last days.

(You see, I had read this tome in high school … it was on a recommended reading list provided to me by a gentleman by the name of R. Burt Gookin. Mr. Gookin was at that time - 1963 - President of H.J. Heinz Company. Mr. Gookin often chose me to caddy for him at Longue Vue Country Club where, in response to my incessant questions about how one might become successful in life and business, he advised me to “read the Greek Tragedies.”)

Essentially, Gibbons said that the Roman Empire succumbed to Barbarian invasions because of a “loss of civic virtue” among its citizens.

“They (meaning the Roman citizens) had become weak, outsourcing (and you thought that a modern term!) their duties to defend the Empire to Barbarian mercenaries, who then became so numerous and ingrained that they were able to take over the Empire. Romans … had also become effeminate, unwilling to live a tougher, ‘manly’ military lifestyle.”

Gibbon also believed that the rise in Christianity in turn created a belief that a better life existed after death, thus causing Roman citizens to become more or less indifferent to living in the present, which in turn diminished their desire to sacrifice for the greater good of the state (Empire).

Other key historians noted this almost vegetative state on the part of the Roman citizenry … pointing out the fact that Romans would rather “watch than participate” … and that “escapism”, in the form of drug and alcohol use was quite rampant.

Sound familiar? Just last week, I wrote about the three groups in today’s society,

What have we become, if not a nation of watchers? And here, I’m not just talking about our endless hours before the television and/or in various stadia, but also about our national loss of entrepreneurial spirit.

Today, rather than see a market opportunity for exploitation, we seek out employment whereby the overall goal is to get from 9:00 a.m. until 5:00 p.m. without having to make a decision.

“Just tell me what I have to do”, the modern employee says, “And don’t make me have to do anything outside of my job description.”

But as familiar as all of this may sound, try this one on for size … I found this on the Internet … just a few days ago. It is a quote from the Boston Globe:

“According to Pentagon sources, the United States’ armed forces, already struggling to meet recruiting goals, are considering expanding the number of non-citizens in their ranks --- including disputed proposals to open up recruiting stations overseas and putting more immigrants on a faster track to U.S. citizenship if they volunteer.”

You see, the Romans preferred Huns and Barbarians. We seem partial to Philippines and Latinos. In either case, as of February of this year, more than 65,000 immigrants now serve in the armed forces of the United States.

So now we have outsourced our defenses … how different is that from paying “protection money” to the mob?

Add to this the “contractors” that we employ (many of these people are Americans, but there is also a substantial minority from such countries as Germany, Canada, New Zealand, and Australia) and you begin to wonder if the very people on the “front lines” of defending the U.S. are truly committed to the ideals that our forefathers conceived some 240 years ago, or if the real motivator is just plain old money. (Remember, contractors routinely average more than $250,000/annum. Compare this to my buddies in Vietnam, who made the princely sum of $300/MONTH. And that included combat pay!)

Add it all up and you get a stoned society that could not care less about taking risks in business being defended by mercenaries.

So … are we Rome? Are we England?

As I always like to say … “Stay tuned”.