He adds the politically-charged anxiety of illegal immigration to his list; and he raises the specter of another terrorist attack (a de rigueur apprehension for some commentators). Notably absent from his litany is the rising concern over climate change.
On the positive side of the ledger, he touts - correctly I believe - the strength of America’s universities, our technology industry, our democracy, and our can-do attitude. But then Hanson adds a truly remarkable statement: America has "vast amounts of untouched oil," he claims - which is his way, I assume, of reassuring us that all is well on the cheap energy front. It’s remarkable, of course, because it’s wrong. American oil production has been in decline since 1971. And if he’s referring to additional Alaskan oil, or oil shale in Colorado, or something else, he’s misleading his readers.
But the other problem with Hanson’s declaration about oil is that it contradicts his conclusion: that Americans must begin making sacrifices now in order to ensure our pre-eminence. "We can curb these excesses quickly," he writes of our large consumerist appetites. "The solution to so many of the hopeless headlines is entirely in our hands."
He’s right in the sense that solutions are in our hands, but wildly off-the-mark, in my opinion, about people voluntarily cutting back, especially if oil remains relatively cheap. The only substantial changes we’ll make, I suspect, is involuntarily - by
And according to recent headlines, necessity may be upon us, especially for the poor, on whom inflation is beginning to take a real toll. Here’s a sample from the news:
There’s more:
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