And Then What?

Government policy decisions of yesteryear had limited impact on the world –at large because of far fewer people and less potent technology.  Today we have both the population numbers and technical means to impose truly environment changing (even earth shaking) actions on our planet. 

We now live in an age where it is no longer appropriate for our leaders to make decisions and proposals whose consequences do not look beyond the next election and well into the future.  To ignore future ramifications is irresponsible.  In life as in the game of Chess, if you leave yourself no resources for the end of the game, you lose.  Are we expecting the second coming to occur before we reach our end game here on earth?  I require personal responsibility of myself and those around me and sometimes dream that government might do the same.  These dreams are usually pretty unpleasant as we seem to have all but lost the traditional approach of leading by example.

Two of today's biggest political issues are the economy (jobs) and the national debt.  Many solutions have been mentioned, but I don't recall any of them including a conclusion…an end game…a happy ending (?):

·                     More jobs – then what?  More production requires the use of more resources to supply more people – driving up costs and leading to the need for ever more jobs.  And then what?  Is there any end in sight?  Perhaps a better approach would be to reduce population to a point where there was a job for everyone (!).  Our civilization has no rules for the game of life…notice that we limit the individual use of water and at the same time build more dams to supply more water.  Why do we need to limit water use?  Is it so that we can squeeze more people on to the planet, build them more suburbs, sell them more stuff, and tax them to build more dams?

·                     If we zero out the national debt – then what?  Do we start all over again?  Swear supply off borrowing forever?  Do we just let future generations struggle with the whole mess?  Is the idea that it's OK to be head over heels in debt?  That's just not my inclination – I find myself repelled by too much dependency and attracted towards self-sufficiency.