Bad Tasting Medicine

I was listening to one of those man-in-the-street interviews on energy policy yesteday, and it was a pretty disheatening experience. The people interviewed seemed rather better informed than most, but could not shift their attention beyond the ends of their noses. The overriding concern was about how can we get gasoline prices back down. Hello people - that ain't gonna happen. This is not the time to be thinking about short term palliatives - this is the time to start that painful therapy that might just save the nation and our children.

Brad Delong points us to some medicine prescribed by Rick Pelstein and quoted approvingly by Max Sawicky. We are headed off the cliff, or down the tube, and:
The U.S. has to get out of Iraq, ASAP.

The U.S. must have national health insurance.

The Federal Gov will need to increase taxes -- over the next 75 years -- by about ten percentage points of GDP.
The tsunami is coming, and everyone is rushing down to buy beachfront property with interest only loans.

No politician could get elected on a program like the above, of course. It might be nice if some would start saying that we face hard choices ahead. Politically speaking, there is little chance that anything can be done before the catastrophe strikes, but we need to start pointing the finger of blame at those who are responsible - maybe a few people will wake up and head for the hills.

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