A long, dreary future
I am more depressed about America's future than I have ever been.
In the last week we have witnessed a China Syndrome of sorts--a financial meltdown on Wall Street, and increasing worries that the foreign nations, like China, which have helped to finance our debt spending will come to think of the U.S. as a less and less appealing investment.
The administration's solution? An unprecedented expenditure about which there is widespread skepticism among economists as to whether it takes the right approach to the problem. And another request to "trust us (and act now!)" from the people who brought you the Iraq War and the Patriot Act. Newsflash: I don't trust you!
I suspect we'll end up spending a lot of money, and I doubt that it is going to improve our long term economic prospects. We've lived too long beyond our means, invested too little in education and infrastructure, and imagined that others would continue to support our behavior because we're, after all, the U.S. of A.
I read on The Daily Dish today that Bush is likely to add $1.5 trillion to the debt this year. For some perspective, the total debt of the U.S. in 1979 in today's dollars was only $1.5 trillion. So this year alone, we're adding to the headwind that we'll face in the years to come--and that the generations that follow us will be forced to drag along behind them--an amount equal to the nation's entire debt just 30 years ago.
The next president will be stepping into a White House that's underwater--paying dearly in interest each year and facing a period of stagnant asset values (home prices, stocks on Wall Street, American credibility in the world)--and will be severely crimped in effecting in real change. I suspect that Obama will have a tough time getting his plans enacted; he'll have to focus on damage control.
A McCain presidency, on the other hand, I have come to fear even more than an actual Bush third term. His cynicism, propensity for lying, and secretive, conspiratorial behavior during the campaign fill me with outright terror about what actions he'd take while seated in the Oval Office. Sarah Palin qualified to be vice president? Like hell she is!
On TV there is nothing but blather... absolute inanity from the most pompous, hypocritical, predictable blowhards imaginable. Alas, it's what passes as public discourse.
Americans have become a soft people. Not a nation of whiners... just a society that has come to feel so entitled to things that they've forgotten the most simplest truths about where true happiness and satisfaction actually come from.
And speaking of things, there's news out that a chemical used in the manufacture of plasma televisions just happens to be one of the most effective greenhouse gases known... a measly 17,000 times as bad as CO2. Buy that new television, incinerate the world...
Can people make a difference? Yes, we can.
Yes, we can. I mean that. But here's the rub: it's sometimes insanely difficult to even communicate with the person you share a bed with each night. And there are nearly 7 billion people in the world... that's a lot of conversations and a lot of inertia to overcome.
TWENTY-FIVE YEARS AGO the world worried about a nuclear holocaust. It was a terrible, nightmare scenario, but it had one redeeming attribute: it was relatively quick and then it was over.
What we face now is likely a long, slow decline, not only as a nation, but perhaps as species. If we can't apply the brakes on our destructive behavior, we're going to initiate a real meltdown. And unlike Paulson, Mother Nature won't even bother with a sketchy bailout plan.
In the last week we have witnessed a China Syndrome of sorts--a financial meltdown on Wall Street, and increasing worries that the foreign nations, like China, which have helped to finance our debt spending will come to think of the U.S. as a less and less appealing investment.
The administration's solution? An unprecedented expenditure about which there is widespread skepticism among economists as to whether it takes the right approach to the problem. And another request to "trust us (and act now!)" from the people who brought you the Iraq War and the Patriot Act. Newsflash: I don't trust you!
I suspect we'll end up spending a lot of money, and I doubt that it is going to improve our long term economic prospects. We've lived too long beyond our means, invested too little in education and infrastructure, and imagined that others would continue to support our behavior because we're, after all, the U.S. of A.
I read on The Daily Dish today that Bush is likely to add $1.5 trillion to the debt this year. For some perspective, the total debt of the U.S. in 1979 in today's dollars was only $1.5 trillion. So this year alone, we're adding to the headwind that we'll face in the years to come--and that the generations that follow us will be forced to drag along behind them--an amount equal to the nation's entire debt just 30 years ago.
The next president will be stepping into a White House that's underwater--paying dearly in interest each year and facing a period of stagnant asset values (home prices, stocks on Wall Street, American credibility in the world)--and will be severely crimped in effecting in real change. I suspect that Obama will have a tough time getting his plans enacted; he'll have to focus on damage control.
A McCain presidency, on the other hand, I have come to fear even more than an actual Bush third term. His cynicism, propensity for lying, and secretive, conspiratorial behavior during the campaign fill me with outright terror about what actions he'd take while seated in the Oval Office. Sarah Palin qualified to be vice president? Like hell she is!
On TV there is nothing but blather... absolute inanity from the most pompous, hypocritical, predictable blowhards imaginable. Alas, it's what passes as public discourse.
Americans have become a soft people. Not a nation of whiners... just a society that has come to feel so entitled to things that they've forgotten the most simplest truths about where true happiness and satisfaction actually come from.
And speaking of things, there's news out that a chemical used in the manufacture of plasma televisions just happens to be one of the most effective greenhouse gases known... a measly 17,000 times as bad as CO2. Buy that new television, incinerate the world...
Can people make a difference? Yes, we can.
Yes, we can. I mean that. But here's the rub: it's sometimes insanely difficult to even communicate with the person you share a bed with each night. And there are nearly 7 billion people in the world... that's a lot of conversations and a lot of inertia to overcome.
TWENTY-FIVE YEARS AGO the world worried about a nuclear holocaust. It was a terrible, nightmare scenario, but it had one redeeming attribute: it was relatively quick and then it was over.
What we face now is likely a long, slow decline, not only as a nation, but perhaps as species. If we can't apply the brakes on our destructive behavior, we're going to initiate a real meltdown. And unlike Paulson, Mother Nature won't even bother with a sketchy bailout plan.
Labels: climate change, economy, election2008, Iraq
posted by michael at 1:00 PM
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