2011-02-25, 02:44 AM
This is a topic that I can strongly stand on both sides of. Part of me wants family values to remain open and available to individuals to live out their personal dreams without having to concern themselves with bureaucracy. But the other and far more realistic side knows that we cannot support the world with what we have for much longer. Sure the possibilities for alternate living locations exist: Underground, Underwater, Space; but those require far more resources than we can muster at the moment. If we were to get to that point however, we might be able to create semi-self-sufficient societies elsewhere which could handle a portion of our burden. Of course the problem is getting there. In order to do those sorts of very expensive initial ventures, we'll have to make some questionable ethical choices and abandon support of the less fortunate. Then the possibility of unending age for the extremely wealthy(thinking cloning + neural engineering rather than stem cell) is not all that far off as well so that just stacks onto the issue.
Another thing that the US in particular has to take care of if we hope to maintain any global economic stance is a major transit reform. Freeways are all well and good, and have been a part of the American dream for generations, but we need to acknowledge that adding new lanes every two years is not going to solve the problem. We need to start prioritizing on mass transit over the freeway system. I drive about 3 miles on the freeway each day for class one way. During that time, I see on average 12 semi-trucks going my direction. Even when I lived in Minnesota 15 years ago, the running joke was that they only had two seasons: Winter and Road Construction.
Ultimately, I'm afraid that we'll remain in debate of the issue and be at a bureaucratic standstill to the point that civil wars erupt between the haves and the have nots before anything can be done.
Another thing that the US in particular has to take care of if we hope to maintain any global economic stance is a major transit reform. Freeways are all well and good, and have been a part of the American dream for generations, but we need to acknowledge that adding new lanes every two years is not going to solve the problem. We need to start prioritizing on mass transit over the freeway system. I drive about 3 miles on the freeway each day for class one way. During that time, I see on average 12 semi-trucks going my direction. Even when I lived in Minnesota 15 years ago, the running joke was that they only had two seasons: Winter and Road Construction.
Ultimately, I'm afraid that we'll remain in debate of the issue and be at a bureaucratic standstill to the point that civil wars erupt between the haves and the have nots before anything can be done.