Environmental Saltwater Policies

The Saltwater policy with the greatest appeal and gravest consequences is subsidized energy consumption. At some time in the past, the time-saving value of each BTU burned from oil or coal was cancelled by the future time losses from pollution. People today have been bankrupting the future of their children and grandchildren. The tragedy of the twentieth century will not be Holocaust, Gulags or Killing Fields but the American destruction of the environment which will last for centuries and continue to harm and kill milllions ... if not humanity itself.

People who live beyond their means have a day of reckoning. The longer the delayed day, the greater the hardship as one must live below their means to repay the debt. In some cases, one can delay the day of reckoning so that their children have to pay the cost. This is the case with the growing environmental debt as Americans continue to consume more oil and generate more polution than any global citizens. One cringes when one hears a President say that the energy crises can be solved by canceling environmental restrictions on pollution and exploration--see Bush.

In recent years, Superfunds have been created to cleanup past pollutions. In many cases, the cost is greater than the original profits of the polluting company. In many ways, the growing environmental debt can be compared to the numbers of Social Security. Originally, fifty(50) people supported each person on Social Security, that is, workers had a 2% debt. Current projections are that each person on social security will have only two or three workers supporting them. That means the workers have 25% to 33% social security debt. This means a worker will be working two to three hours of each day to pay taxes for public pensions.

Before the industrial and chemical revolution, the average person did not work a single minute for past pollution. With the mining of coal and drilling for oil, pollution occurred on a vast scale in both local dumps and global changes--oil droughts. With each passing year, the average person spendsmore time of each workday paying for the cost of pollution, e.g., bottle water and taxes. If the environmental debt is one hour today, one's children will probably have many hours of debt. Soccer Moms who shephard kids in mini-van or SUV are really sacrificing their children's future for the symbols of happiness today--see modern home. Future generations will no thank their parents and grandparents living beyond their environmental means. Gas-guzzling RV's should replace the bumper sticker "I'm spending my grandchildrens' inheritance" by adding the phrase " and more."  In growing numbers, more and more people find they have no minutes of the average workday for self-enjoyment because of the environment costs of pollution: environmental cancers killed them.

With each year of growing BTU generation, the time-debt per person increases like the time debt of social security per worker. The tragedy of the twentieth century will not be Holocaust, Gulags or Killing Fields but the American destruction of the environment which will last for centuries and continue to harm and kill milllions ... if not humanity itself. The cost of gasoline is not the pump price--the pump prices is merely a downpayment--see Tax Me, Please. In light of the possibility that the impact of each time-saving gallon of gas actually causes a greater loss of time in the future, the demands for taxpayer subsidized energy (e.g., California ) is probably the saltiest of all Saltwater solutions.