My worry though is that presidential and Congressional meddling that may postpone a decline or hasten a rise has this tendency of making the conditions worse when things go bad again. Part of what's scaring me the most about conditions now is that the artificially low interest rates have caused tremendous overbuilding and a whole lot of people to buy and build homes that would never have qualified with stable enough lifestyles and income a few years back. If and when those borderline people default on their mortgages, the effect on the economy could be rather dire. We also have to expect that the construction industry has grown artificially large as well recently and when the housing boom stops, all those people become unemployed and end up on Jerry Springer. The whole system's in this delicate balance and government just can't learn their lesson and continually look for that instant fix. Take a tax cut for instance. It's all well and good to think of it as reducing government but people forget that government is jobs to many people and those people's paychecks help support the businesses and industries around the country. The same also goes for social programs like job training. Yes, it helps move people off welfare but at the same time it puts more competition into the workplace. I'm not saying any of those things on their own are bad, simply that you don't get something for nothing. There's always a price.

Why can't we simply look for a moderate solution, one that doesn't require instant fixes but instead slow and meticulous changes with the eye on the pie decades out. We want growth? Sure, why not but keep that growth within limits that match the population growth. You want to cut back government? Of course, but do it a little at a time. Allow the ones affected by the change to alter their lives over a reasonable period of time. Oh, and while we're at it, let's get a bit of humility. We don't have to be gluttons for energy. A look at limiting population over the next century or so might be a good thing to start now.