Instant gratification to blame for recent trends

The events of the last week and a half have been very disturbing. They form a pattern and represent an underlying problem in our culture. The collapsing of a bridge in Minnesota, the collapse of the sub prime mortgage markets and the problems with the space shuttle, while different, share common causes – failure to make sound investments and an addiction to instant gratification laced with a healthy dose of denial.

You don't have to be JP Morgan the banker to understand what happened with the Sub prime crisis. Loans were made to people who with a wisp of a downturn in their lives could never repay the loans. Some were loaned money at an absurdly low "variable" rate with no hope of getting the income to make the higher payments when the rate changed. Some loans were made to homes that were valued by the loan officer way above their market value. Other loans were made without anyone checking the real financial income or records of the loan recipient. Wall Street was only too happy to buy into the fantasy that there was going to be real money behind these mortgages.

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What is so amazing about these crises is that pretty much any thoughtful American could have told you what was going on. With credit card companies sending applications in the mail at breakneck speed, with Ditech and other mortgage companies sending out offers, advertising on TV and radio and with telemarketers calling during many dinner hours with low mortgage offers, it was obvious that credit was pretty loose. How come none of these Wall Street geniuses could figure this out?

The bridge in Minnesota is another example of not dealing with an obvious reality. In 2005 the American Society of Civil Engineers sent out a postcard "Greetings from America's Crumbling Infrastructure." It went out to many media outlets and pointed to their 2005 report which gave bridges in the United States a "C" grade. The 2005 report said that 27.1 percent of the nation's bridges are structurally unsound. The warning was ignored.

As I write, many Americans are on pins and needles wondering about the safety of the space shuttle. Yes, as amazing as it seems, NASA let another shuttle go up without fixing the "foam on takeoff problem." The shuttle is aging, we lost a crew in 2003, and we are still sending people up in the shuttle. Why don't we have one with new technology? Why do we put astronauts at risk?

These three incidents are related. They are related by our inability to look to the future as a country and as individuals. The Congress, both Republicans and Democrats, can't plan a budget that manages replacements and repairs. Any viable business budgets capital expenditures for repair and maintenance, but not our elected officials. Individuals have been brainwashed by a modern culture that tells kids from the moment they can sit up and watch TV that they need to have material things to be as good as the kid next door. We are addicted to instant material gratification. The concept of "layaway," has given way to credit cards for college kids to get them addicted early. With our economy being flown on a kite, it is only nature that what goes up, must come down. Let us hope that the shuttle will come down safely.