Tuesday, August 2, 2011

Debt ceiling- Bottom line

As much as I should avoid politics, this entire debt ceiling debate can be summed up quickly:  Without raising revenue or lowering expenses we are pushing the problem off to the next generation (and we have been for generations).  This is actually a big part of The Watchman's Rattle: Thinking Our Way Out of Extinction root cause of the failure of ancient Romans, Mayans, and Khmer civilizations failed.  Of course, we may be reaching the tipping point when the system collapses.


That's all the big money. That's where it is. It's not in some mythical waste fraud abuse. The bulk of the money is in Social Security, Medicare, the military, interest on the debt.--- “Fareed Zakaria GPS”

2 comments:

rebeccacosta said...

Thank you for your comments regarding The Watchman's Rattle. Over time the leaders and experts of every great civilization become paralyzed- gridlocked - by the complexity of the dangerous problems they must solve to survive. Shortly following gridlock, leaders begin making decisions based on unproven beliefs rather than rational fact - owing largely to the confusion over what the facts are and what they mean. It is when facts are substituted for beliefs that irrational opposition, silo thinking, the personalization of blame and other symptoms overtake us. I do not know if one book can change the tides, but if the book offers humanity a different way of looking at problems which continue to persist despite having more technology, knowledge and resources than at any other time in human history, then I feel my life's work will have been worth the struggle. Again, thank you fro continuing to spread the word.
Rebecca Costa
The Watchman's Rattle

rocketsciencesense said...

Part of why your book was so powerful for me is because you were able to articulate ideas I have had since junior high school. I recently posted about my Hark Rule#2 (the rule of the obvious). One of my favorite parts was your discussion on problem solving and how when faced with an overwhelming problem with no clear solution you should apply all mitigations at once. Brilliant! since usually society mistakes a single mitigation as a solution which in turn makes the problem get worse. And of course as you apply all of the mitigations at once you also work on a permanent solution. Again, thank you for your comments- I am honored and humbled that you took the time to read it!