I recently acquired the title of great-grandfather. Now I worry at what sort of world or country that I will hand off to my great-granddaughter.
Many would say that things aren’t so bad, but I’ve watched most of the movie of life, so I’ve seen considerable changes. How could I even begin explain the mess that potentially I will hand off? How did it become so?
Although we see political parties scrambling for power, a different battle may be just as explanatory, short-term good versus long-term good. Examples of this are all around and obvious. Short-term corporate profits suffer while complying with environmental regulations which work to avoid long-term health and environmental degradation. Federal spending stimulates the current economy at the cost of incurring long-term debt and the associated growing interest payments.
As a country we don’t often do a very good job of planning and working for long-term goals; we tend to focus on here and now, immediate results. At times such as now, focus on short-term is appropriate, or are we doing so because we abrogated our long-term planning?
