Here We Go Again... How is this Sustainable?

Once again this morning, we woke up to headlines that our power grid is not hardy enough to handle extreme weather events. Over a million Americans might go into the Christmas weekend with no electricity at home. What is the true #SocialCost of such events? What should we be willing to pay upfront, to avoid such costs? Why do we keep talking so much about #Resilience and #Adaptation, but do so little about it?

It happens so frequently at such a large scale these days, it should not be "News" anymore. No, this is not just about grid resilience, technology, or public policy. It is a lot more than just about power grids, water mains, or sewers. We need to dig deeper. It is about our society's strategic priorities and decisions. It is even deeper- about how we measure #progress and #productivity in our society.

The latest version of this attitude is reflected in yesterday's news: What’s in $1.65 Trillion Omnibus Spending Bill, and What Isn’t. Once again, we increased our military spending. Why? Because we focus on money making money. #ReturnOnInvestment. Jobs in every congressional district to make bombs. Just like we had jobs in every corner of the country to cut down forests and clear prairies over a century ago. It is about jobs. It is about GDP.

..increased defense funding by $76 billion, totaling $858 billion.

Half our discretionary spending is for our ever-growing #MilitaryIndustrialComplex. Never mind that the we spend more than the next 9 combined. Why? Because wars mean destruction- and what is destroyed has to be rebuilt. On the front end, economic activity lines the pockets of our merchants of death and destruction. On the back end, international contracts to rebuild can favor our A&E firms- we can even pick non-military targets that will improve profits. Both are financed by our financial sector, which will make good returns on investments. Both will lower unemployment rates and add to our GDP. Conflicts overseas are good for business. That's why we feed them with more weapons, instead of trying to stop them. Never mind the human toll. Small price to pay for Freedom, we say.

..includes $45 billion for Ukraine and allies, an increase from President Biden’s $37 billion request

The same attitude applies to our domestic infrastructure. Good news- our latest spending increases funding to #rebuild after "natural" disasters. Why can't we build what won't get torn down by storms, you ask? Well, the more times it gets torn down, more we need to rebuild. And we keep contributing to jobs. Reducing unemployment. Growing our GDP.?

.included $40 billion to help communities hit by hurricanes, storms and wildfires.

We prefer buying personal vehicles to investing in public transit and trains- they need to be replaced more frequently and can add a lot more to GDP than one time higher up-front investments. Just like we prefer gasoline vehicles to electric cars- they need more repair and maintenance. More jobs. More GDP. Never mind air pollution and climate change. Most of it is now from OUR oil and gas. More jobs. More GDP. Consumption driven economics.

All this goes back to what Robert Kennedy said in 1968, in his remarks at the University of Kansas.

..counts air pollution and cigarette advertising, and ambulances to clear our highways of carnage.?

It counts special locks for our doors and the jails for the people who break them.?

It counts the destruction of the redwood and the loss of our natural wonder in chaotic sprawl.?

It counts napalm and counts nuclear warheads and armored cars for the police to fight the riots in our cities.?

It counts Whitman's rifle and Speck's knife, and the television programs which glorify violence in order to sell toys to our children.?

Yet the gross national product does not allow for the health of our children, the quality of their education or the joy of their play.?

It does not include the beauty of our poetry or the strength of our marriages, the intelligence of our public debate or the integrity of our public officials.?

It measures neither our wit nor our courage, neither our wisdom nor our learning, neither our compassion nor our devotion to our country, it measures everything in short, except that which makes life worthwhile.

What we don't measure, we cannot manage. What we measure, we do. We need to pay attention to the last sentence in Robert Kennedy's speech that has been completely ignored.?

..it can tell us everything about America except why we are proud that we are Americans.

We need to measure value to society and value to humanity in a different way. Beyond this quarter's unemployment and inflation rates. Beyond #GDP and #GNP, as we currently measure them. Society needs longer vision than corporate CFOs and CEOs. And longer than a politician's election cycle. For starters, how about seven generations?