It Strikes Me Funny: Is it possible for a politician to think long term?

Captain Harpie and his Finance Minister Jim Flatulence recently said (respectively) “stay the course” and “increase productivity” in the midst of these troubled economic times.

I want ‘same old same old business as usual but more of it’ right about now?

Let’s think a bit more long term shall we?

This from A Short History of Progress by Ronald Wright (see Recommended Reading in margin):

If civilization is to survive, it must live on the interest, not the capital, of nature.

Ecological markers suggest that in the early 1960s humans were using about 70 per cent of nature’s yearly output; by the early 1980s we’d reached 100 per cent; and in 1999 we were at 125 per cent.

Such numbers may be imprecise but their trend is clear - they mark the road to bankruptcy. [page 129]


[Live Small: cartoon by G.Harrison]

Add to this the knowledge that 'population growth is slowing but by 2050 there will still be 3 billion more' people on our planet and I’d have to conclude we are eating our planet far too quickly.

Have you ever heard a politician say things like the above? Will we ever?

What’s the most positive thing you’ve heard a politician say?

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