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| Joe Bakewell. |
THE WASTELAND.
I'm thinking
about TS Eliot, as I do every spring, and his famous quotation, claiming that
April is the cruelest month—a statement with which I agree. He is also famous
for his poetry. Among his poems is one titled ‘The Wasteland’. This title was
borrowed some time later and used to describe the quality of television at that
time. As far as I can tell it hasn't improved since.
I’m borrowing
the title here to describe the state of our public life.
It's amazing
to me that so much of our national dialogue consists of what can only be called
political combat. This combat seems to be a full-time occupation of the people
who are supposed to be running our government. All other issues regardless of
their importance have been shoved to the side. And the American public seems to
be buying into this preoccupation to the exclusion of all other problems and
issues regardless of their importance. As an example, I think of all the
attention being paid to health care and how much citizens will pay for
insurance while ignoring the gross cost of health care to our nation. It seems
to be understood that the government namely our taxpayers will make up the
difference. And where does that money come from?
To look at the
cost and what can be done about it would be political suicide—that's where the
money comes from to fund campaigns. So
we’re stuck with a ridiculous situation in which we spend at least twice as
much as other nations on health care while achieving results that are worse.
There is also
the little matter of our national debt and where that's headed. Our government
currently spends 8 1/2% of its budget on interest expense and given current
plans that's scheduled to increase in proportion to the debt.
I don't know
what it cost to run Washington DC but I think it's probably the biggest con job/rip
off in history. The federal government employs over 2,000,000 people not
counting military or the Post Office. Over 400,000 are in the DC area. We are
spending huge sums for political garbage, and most citizens seem to be cheering
for their side while deluding
themselves into thinking that their votes have any value.
This will
continue until some externally-imposed crisis brings it to a halt.
Joe Bakewell.
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