Signaling Virtue
What is the most important issue the human race is facing this very moment? Our species’ physical and economic well being is under assault by a virus. The solutions are therapeutics and vaccines. Do you know anything about the myriad of Phase I and Phase II trials going on? Of course not. There is no coverage.
The biggest medium term problem Americans have is that our current spasm of spending will run our national debt (including Muni bonds) to 150% of GDP. That is a recipe for stagnant growth. We’ve gone on this spending spree just as we are being overwhelmed by the entitlement tsunami. The actuarial shortfall in Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security, public sector pensions, Pension Fund Guarantee Corp., postal service pensions, federal flood insurance and some other fiscal insanities is AT LEAST $130,000,000,000,000 (that’s trillion). Only a few on the right side of the political spectrum are even attempting to talk about the issue and they get zero coverage.
If the left side of the political spectrum is to be believed, the long term existential threat we face as a species is global warming. Are we having any public discussion about construction of nuclear power plants or scaling up technology to remove carbon from the atmosphere? None that I’ve seen.
What are we doing instead? We are wallowing in virtue signaling. We’re marching. It’s OK to stop sheltering if you are marching. We’re tearing down statues. We’re campaigning to rename military bases. We are insisting that Joe Biden must pick a black woman as his running mate. Talk about judging people by the color or their skin!
Well . . . you say . . . structural racism is a vital issue and now is the moment to address it. I don’t disagree. Are we addressing it with anything but symbolism? Hell NO! What about the 98% of black males killed by gunfire not emanating from police weapons? Let’s solve that problem by defunding the police. What about the fatherless children? What about the corrupt/ineffective housing authorities running vermin infested public housing projects? What about the rotten schools and the unrelenting campaign to shut down charter schools? What about trying to replicate the success of the Success Academy in NYC? We aren’t even serious about the issue about which we are fulminating.
Our media are so focused on eliminating the cancer of Donald Trump and getting on the virtue bandwagon that they do us a monstrous disservice. Time to focus.
