JMO - Lessor of evils

Listening to the news on the radio and television, reading the newspapers and magazines, and just watching the world, I'm beginning to wonder if we're at the point in many situations where the choices aren't the best for the situation or circumstances, but only the best among the lessor of evils. This seems to be pervasive across the many aspects of our life. And I can't help but see that all of these problems and lack of good answers or solutions were foreseeable.

And what and why you ask?

Iraq. It's a quagmire and we all know it now. You can discuss the lying by the White House ad naseum, but in the end the President manipulated and spun the truth into something that resembles the fanatasy they wanted us to believe. But all that said, what's the solution to the country? Are there really any good ones or just the lesser of evils which will minimize the damage than create anything positive?

Politics. Why is it that we trust what they say when they're no smarter or wiser than we are, they're just elected. An election doesn't suddenly make them smarter, but they have the staff to spin the truth as they want to identify and tell it. And we're stuck with the results. We are on the brink of losing our democracy where money wins anything and the public is out on the street holding signs. That's not entirely true, there are some good politicians and some good lobbying groups, but they're often to few and too small, respectively.

Economy. It's a global economy know. And it's clear after watching first Japan, then Taiwan, SE Asia, Korea, India, and now China, jobs are being exported at a rate unprecedented in our history. We're fastly becoming a service and consumer society where money is only going around and around except for the money in the trade deficit for products being imported. This is an exageration to some degree, but it's the direction we're heading and there doesn't appear a good solution for American workers, or not without some negative impacts.

Workers. What's the future for the American worker? As above, we're losing the better jobs, albeit some at a slower rate, but the reality is that the cost of living in the US is so high we can't afford to keep jobs here without losing employee benefits. We've been seeing this in corporate merger and acquistions where jobs are cut, exported or outsourced, wage cut or frozen, pension plans cut or eliminated, health insurance cut or reduced, and job security lost.

Immigration. And this is created part of the mess. With 12 million illegal immigrants and more legal immigrants, we're on the verge of creating a permanent lower class as they replace workers who have historically and traditionally been in those jobs, like the service industry, construction, farm workers (although these are the oldest immigrant working class), etc. Employers are electing to violate the law to hire them and existing citizens to avoid worker rights, benefits and wages.

Environment. It used to be 30+ years ago we talked about cleaning up things, and now we talk about acceptable levels of pollution and acceptable levels of endangered species. What happened? All the information was there which foretold what would happen, and it did happen. So now we have only ourselves to blame for not paying attention. And what have we done to the future of this planet and our children.

Youth. We're growing up younger and with so much communication about the world our children are losing their youth. I am saddened that kids can't be kids anymore, and they're pushed so young into the world that they can't assimilate it as the brain is developing. It's hard for them to grasp the issues and choices when they're not fully developed to know how to think, but have to anyway. While many do grow up ok, how many don't?

Old age. I fear for the elderly as many are being abandoned by our society. The cost of supporting them is increasing and the baby boom generation is just beginning. The cost will hinder the younger generations and their ability to do more and better, they'll simply have to pay the bills of the older generations. And if they decide it's not fair or right? They will eventually be in power to decide and act. What have we taught them about respect?

I could go on with other subjects or topics in our world, but it's only the continuing tale where our choices are getting fewer and fewer and less and less for the better than reducing the worst. We're sleeping in our own planet and we have to face the reality we haven't made it very well of late. So when do we run out of choices on any issue and our worst nightmare is realized?