Guest Comment: Living in the sub-prime world

A sub-prime world is one in which the full cost of goods and services are knowingly ignored.

This is our world, a world that cannot be sustained without a series of crises, some of which would be catastrophic in scale.

Let’s consider the sub-prime world of our energy costs. Our energy costs are heavily subsidized to keep prices low.

If the full costs would include the expenses for such aspects as land restoration and the costs of any environmental, medical, or social damages, prices would soar.

It has been argued that the full cost of gasoline would price it at more than $10.00 per gallon.

We, the people, have shown clearly that we will not tolerate such outrageous prices.

We would whine about oil companies making outrageous windfall profits and would demand of our politicians that they take care of this outrageous situation.

So our politicians wouldl plan another investigation of the oil companies, who have successfully passed many other investigations.

It matters not about the history, records, or reinvestments of the oil companies.

We demand action to keep our sub-prime behaviors intact.

Perhaps we are a nation of whiners, for surely, we do whine when our lives are faced with the prospects of paying full costs. We vote to live in a sub-prime world. We want low prices, big subsides, and the right to get what we want out of life.

We want job security and will vote for anyone that who can promise more jobs within a growing economy be it subsidized or not.

Just don’t ask us to to pay full price.

Recently, while our Congressional members were focusing on that all-important personal job security, in the middle of solving our sub-prime financial crisis, over a trillion dollars floated away—lost.

I have heard of signs that say, “Impeach Bush”, but where are the signs, “Impeach our Legislators?”

This will be a no-show event, since our legislators will work again to keep our gas prices low, promise jobs and a growing economy, get us a great health plan, promise good schools, stop all wars by diplomacy, etc.

And we don’t wish to hear about full-cost proposals for any of those great features of the American dream of living in the sub-prime lane.

Apparently our legislators have encouraged lenders for decades to make the American dream available to more Americans by allowing risky credit ventures.

As a result, many people moved into the world of sub-prime living where in the short run over decades, many lenders prospered, but the borrowers could not sustain their financial obligations, which was known at the start by all financial partners.

The borrowers could not succeed, but profits could be made by the lenders over the short haul.

In the long run, sub-prime financing of the American dream would fail and did and placed our country in a financial crisis.

This was known by our legislators for decades, but the political pressures for job security through gaining party power won out in the games politicians play.

We will suffer through our present financial crisis that resulted from our sub-prime demands and its supporting sub-prime politics.

Yes, we will likely continue to play in the sub-prime lanes.

It will be easy to predict that we will have more crises.

We must ask, which of our sub-prime arenas will bring us the next crisis?

According to Thomas Friedman, our planet is hot, flat, and crowded, all of which portends trouble ahead.

As we continue to escape paying the full costs of our energy uses, there is a strong and certain possibility of a crisis in the form of a worldwide civilization collapse.

We have huge sums of unpaid-for credits of green-house gases that are polluting our atmosphere and dooming the future of our children and grandchildren.

We seem either unable or unwilling to see the necessity for paying the costs to mitigate the impending and existing harm to our future due to human-caused Global Climate Changes or to control a planet whose population is growing at an unsustainable rate.

This crisis of a civilization collapse is predictable but likely will not be acknowledged in time to prevent disaster on an unprecedented scale.

This is the cost of living too long in the comfortable lane of a sub-prime world where myopic blinders to reality develop. This is likely the history that will repeat itself into doom.

It is suggested that whoever does not understand the future, may be doomed not to have one. The future belongs to those who make the effort to pay the full cost of goods and services, call attention to responsible economics, and say “No” to sub-prime ventures.

Paul Taylor is a retired university educator moved to Green Valley 13 years ago from Oshkosh, Wis. The views expressed are the writer’s own and do not necessarily reflect those of this newspaper.