Letter to the Editor: American fantasy of having it all

 

To the Editor:

Thanks to Mr. Ackley for pointing out the problem of federal expenditures exceeding its revenue. However, he did what many people, including professional commentators on national news broadcasts, do – he confused “deficit” with “debt.” 

A deficit is a yearly occurrence of expenditures exceeding revenue – not a problem if that only happens occasionally. However, when there are more years with deficits than surpluses, the amount of money borrowed (and owed to others) grows and becomes debt. At $19 trillion dollars, the U.S. debt is frighteningly large (roughly one third of the entire world’s annual economic output); and each of the last two presidents has doubled the debt of his predecessor – not alone, of course; he had plenty of help from us. 

This seems to imply a larger problem – that we Americans are living in a fantasy where we believe we can (deserve to?) have our cake and eat it too; and many of us seem to think the rest of the world can do this also. How does such a belief (unlimited economic growth – with all its resource use and waste production) square with our finite biosphere, whose limits (and their payback) we are recently experiencing? This seems more faith-based economics than reality-based. Maybe our national religion is really the religion of perpetual progress – “What entropy?” 

In spite of Hollywood fantasies of techno-grandiosity, there is no Planet B. If we can’t manage to live harmoniously (with each other and nature) on the one orb on which we evolved (or were designed for, if you prefer), how can we expect to go a-conquering other worlds, with their vast distances and hostile environments? Maybe we deserve Trump after all; but God, I hope not.

Steve Turman

Red Oak


The Red Oak Express

2012 Commerce Drive
P.O. Box 377
Red Oak, IA 51566
Phone: 712-623-2566 Fax: 712-623-2568

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