As I observe the failure of the Washington establishment, and the other developed
countries as well, to deal with the deteriorating financial, ecological, and demographic crises which now afflict us, I begin to question whether our generation
is guilty of criminal neglect.
In order to discuss this rationally we should begin with certain principles and questions:
1. We created the next generation, without their request or permission.
2. We were similarly created by the previous generation, which left us a legacy.
Was that legacy better than the one they received?
3. Will the legacy we leave to our progeny be as good as the one we were given?
4. If we make the sacrifices required to leave them a legacy at least as good,
or better than ours, that also makes our present lot better.
Among the crises our generation confronts:
Global climate change (provokes great argument about it and about).
The financial meltdown; was it due to lack of adequate government regulation and oversight?
The rapid population growth, causing ecological deterioration.
We are consuming the earth's assets at a rate more rapid than they can be replaced.
Aging populations require more care, consume more, and more expensive, scarce health care services.
To resolve some or all of these would require burdensome financial costs and impose
inconvenient and drastic changes in life styles, at a time of severe
recession and unemployment. They were brought on by our behavior. Do we have the moral right to pass the burden of solving them to the next generations; also
the bills?
We are not the first or last generation to inhabit our planet and our country. We are temporary lease-holders, and thus custodians of the property on which we
temporarily reside, and its economy. All leases require the tenant to leave the
property in the condition in which he found it.
Are we going to be dead beats, leaving our descendants with a deteriorated, asset depleted home, with unpaid rents for them to pay?
If we do, shame on us. And they will never forgive us.
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1 comment:
We must ask:
What are our obligations to our children?
Have we done all right for their future?
Are we , the baby boomers, leaving them a legacy of doom?
No doubt we are somehow responsible for the current ecological crisis, for a worldwide tension between nations, for the threat of nuclear proliferation, for debt in the trillions, and for the disintegration of family values. As I like to say to my French speaking friends :” j’en passe et des meilleurs.” (I skip some and some of the best).
But what has our generation been dealing with? Not much better than today: A world ravaged by WW2, millions of lives sacrificed, many countries ruined, the Korean war, the cold war, the Vietnam war, prevalent divorces, AIDS and malaria….
Still we have maintained a semblance of a tranquil world, developed a respect of nature, and above all we have provided a tremendous longevity in our passage on earth.
Let our progeny enjoy a long life. It is up to them to make it worth living the way we did for ours.
Jacques
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