Ignoring the future

The real problem with legislators arises from the fact that they are elected for a specific limited period of time.  As a result, they are not particularly interested in the longer-term consequences of a current vote, when 'longer-term' is defined as 'not on my watch'.  Their concern is focused on their own term of office, and what serves them best over that range of time.

So when we see the huge and rapid increase in public debt, we see the direct consequences of being focused only on the current issues.  Legislators won't be around to take responsibility for the debts they have incurred.  Current needs are met.  The future can take care of itself, or at the least other people will take care of things.

Another example is the issue of global warming.  That's a future event, well after their current term of office.  Right now oil is profitable and reasonably available.
Who cares about the emissions?  I can't smell a thing.  Unless I go into a town.

The limits on this kind of spending and thinking, if we can call it thinking, were originally managed by keeping the dollar tied to the gold standard.  We couldn't print more money than we had gold to back it up.  It was harder for the country to go into debt.  Having the requirement to live within our current means limited our ability to incur debts.  There is no such limit now, of course, because otherwise we (as a nation) would have experienced great restrictions on our ability to spend money.  Money that we don't have.

We thought that in the future our increased prosperity, triggered by our ability to spend vast amounts of money we didn't have now, would generate the taxes that could be used to pay off our debts.  Kind of like spending money with a platinum card on the assumption that we would earn enough at some time in the future we could pay our debts.

Legislators aren't the only short-sighted people.  I am old enough that it's very clear to me that I have a relatively short number of years ahead of me.  I sometimes find myself thinking about such issues that they won't be my problem because I won't be around to deal with them.  So for those who are both elderly and legislators, the incentive to deal with future problems becomes rather weak.  Can we afford the luxury of short-sightedness?

A final note.  The voting population seems afflicted with the same disorder.  They (and I mean 'we') want what they want when they want it, which is now.  The hell with the future.  It will take care of itself.  We can indulge ourselves in what we want. Someone else will have to pay the credit card bill.