Sunday, January 21, 2007

Why the future belongs to the developing world

Beliefnet:Mary Walsh:Wanted by the Fertility Police

Last year, I clicked on an MSN.com article about the biggest financial mistakes people make. The venomous words "having too many children" jumped off the screen at me. The article said that one or two children were bad enough; that children are extremely expensive and time-consuming; that the problem with having a third child is that the parents often want to have a fourth; and that four children are just too many. Children, one of the greatest joys of married life, the symbol of love between a husband and wife, were summarily dumped into the bin of financial mistakes.


That is the story of the Boomer reign. We have not invested in the future of our nation and so things are slowly coming apart. Whether you think peak oil is in five years or fifty years it is absurd not to be busting butt on future alternatives. Our political and economic decisions over the past few decades have been focused on maximizing short term gain and putting costs off on future generations. The Boomers aborted their children so the party could keep on going and now have no one to pay the bill for social security or wipe their butts. Eating your seed corn might feel good at the time but it is the antithesis of a long term strategy.

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