Thinking ahead

Using hindsight is easy. Forecasting the future where you live is a lot tougher if you want to be comfortable with your guess about your future.

Yet I too live in the real world, and so have to plan ahead, anticipate if you will.

And most of our futures are more locally based than nationally based.

As a retired Marine, I have been taught to focus more on capability, and less on intents. Practically, that means spending more of your mental time thinking about what can happen, vice the psychology of those in charge, commanding if you will.

Add in all the normal distractions, like poor reporting, and the difficulty is amplified.

And so in the USA, really the Western world, I worry about what our present leaders are capable of doing. And depending on where you live, these leaders may be elected, appointed, dictators, inherited, tribal, etc. And in the annals of human history, we seem to have more than our fair share of poor leaders these days which adds to the excitement factor.

Now the obvious thing to worry about is our economic health, mostly jobs to support our Families. But I also worry about some other human caused things like regional wars and nuclear weapons...think Chinese civil war, the Middle East, or even a war between India and Pakistan. Add in mother nature's wild card events, and I can become a real worry wart.

But what I most worry about is how our leaders will react, especially if I believe that we have so many poor leaders these days. Said another way, having a problem is one thing, but how you handle a problem is another thing.

Now in fairness, some leaders are doing a pretty good job, and need to be recognized and reinforced by whatever means.

So when planning ahead, think about this idea. It has taken we humans decades to get into this mess, and will probably take decades to finally correct it all, that is, to make things better for our Families.

Let me provide one example. Think ahead when your kids get married and want to start their own home, but figure out they have to work two or three months each year in the USA just to pay the interest on the national debt created by this generation, and thus cannot afford to buy a home with its payments. Well I know what I would do, like default on the debt. My point in this example is that we are setting up future problems decades out just by our leaders' actions today.

Let me provide one more example. A few months ago, the USA President ordered the military into the Libyan civil war. What was not reported was that the USA was pretty thread bare in the Med, and so these immediate forces came from the Iraq and Afghanistan theater of operations. That amounts to a drawn down in that theater. Now that might be OK to many, but did you know and even get a chance to acquiesce. Now I think the decision was popular, but a USA President and his minions acting like old fashioned royalty will have its consequences, too. And for us, we the people.

Especially if you enjoy the luxury of thinking ahead.