Why the world is doomed, Part Five

Not in my backyard. That phrase was made famous during debates on where to put things that people want. Power plants for example. Everyone wants electricity to work when they turn something on, but nobody wants a power plant in their neighborhood. So everyone wants the Government to reduce spending, but not on any program or project that they personally benefit from. The poor and elderly want no changes to welfare, social security, medicare, or any other program that benefits them. The people who work in or for the Defense industry don't want any cuts to that, because it benefits them. School teachers demand more federal money for their program, despite the fact that additional money has never increased the amount of education that children get.

In the end, the Federal Budget continues to grow, because nobody will give up what they personally have. And they want even more of what they have. For generations we have always satisfied the demands of the people by printing more money. In the end, the world is doomed because of the collective greed of the people.

Even the Green tech that the liberals love suffers from the same problem. They want wind generators, but not in the areas they live in. The famous example was the wind farm off the Kennedy compound in Massachusetts. Sure the Kennedy clan was all in favor of alternative energy, but just not where they liked to go yachting. In other words, not in my backyard.

The bad part is, it isn't only the public utilities, like power, that are used this way. The poor normally suffer the worst, having their houses, and towns ravaged by Eminent Domain to benefit those with the power. The rich, and the politically connected. It isn't the Republicans that have the market cornered either. In Michigan, under the Democratic Governor Granholm, when the state was majority Democratic in every elected office, a black neighborhood was slated for destruction for a Golf Course and associated golf living.

Power plants, industrial areas, even Prisons face the same hurdles. Things people want or need, they don't want near them. Modern Prisons are as close as possible to escape proof. Yet even with that simple fact, nobody wants one near them, in case they say, something goes horribly wrong. Yet we also want society protected, and the guilty punished for their transgressions. So we build prisons farther and farther from the towns. Airports follow this same trend.

So what is the answer? There isn't one. Getting people to accept that the things they want for the benefits also come with some negatives is beyond unlikely to impossible.

In the end, we are doomed as a civilization, because we won't do anything that causes us personally, any difficulty.