Dysfunctional American System

While the arguments put forth by Jeffrey Simpson and Margaret Wente in the Globe and Mail (July 30, 2011) are beyond dispute, I am surprised that no commentator ever points out the basic reason for dysfunction in the US political system. Because one-third of the House and the Senate members are due for election every two years, one-third of the lawmakers are always fighting either the Primary race or the election itself. These candidates are in no shape to support unpopular decisions no matter how important these are to the country. That is why there are never any meaningful cuts in expenditures and no increase in taxes. Add absence of party discipline to the mix, you have the recipe for the disaster the country is facing now and has little chance of avoiding.

In any event, the economies in the West are suffering, not from shortage of any thing, but from over indulgence. The economic system demands growth every month at every level. This is simply not sustainable on a planet with seven billion humans demanding more and more of resources and emitting more and more pollution. I suggest that the limit has been reached in the West and expecting continuous increase in consumption by overfed, overdressed, overentertained citizens is living in the sixties. What is needed, and soon, is a new economic model, one based on shrinking population and reducing or stable consumption. In this system, stores will stress best quality, not the lowest price; job satisfaction is valued much more than fat salary checks and bonuses; individual craft is appreciated rather than the efficiency of manufacturing on a vast scale and simple living is prized, not ostentatious palaces and cars. One can only hope that the planet does not have to die and be reborn for such utopean changes and these can occur without the armageddon promised in the scriptures. I am afraid the current trends do not lend credence to such hopes.