It looks like the good ol' reliable taxpayer will be taking responsibility for all that's gone wrong with the economy (by the way, Wall Street bigwigs are also taxpayers, as well as the people who lied on their mortgage applications).

Insurance firm Liberty Mutual--the company with those commercials where people see a good deed and then do one of their own--has come out with a "Responsibility Project Index." It examines how Americans define personal responsibility.

Not surprisingly, most Americans consider themselves responsible, but not their neighbors. But since nearly nine out of ten of those surveyed admit they don't really know their neighbors, blaming them for what's wrong is easy. 70 percent of Americans surveyed believe they have become MORE personally responsible in the last five years, but 74 percent believe everyone else has become LESS so. People most often defined personal responsibility as "taking care of yourself and your family" and "making sure your children behave appropriately," not "knowing your neighbors" or "putting the community before your own self interests."

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Those who consider themselves most responsible include teachers, African-Americans, younger Americans, and those who are married. So if you're a young, married, African-American teacher you must be a really good person! (At least you think so...)

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Many of those surveyed blame reality television and the media's focus on celebrity lifestyles with destroying our desire to have personal responsibility. More than a third of those surveyed couldn't name a single responsible celeb or business leader! However, 15 percent considered Bill Gates personally responsible, with 13 percent believing Oprah Winfrey is, and eight percent saying the same about Angelina Jolie.

As for cities with the most, and least, personally responsible citizens, Minneapolis came in first, followed by Atlanta and Philadelphia. In last place, naturally, is Los Angeles. For more on the survey, here's the web site.

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