A malnurished child in a cash strapped family

[Tom Rinaldo]

16. I was using a relevant metaphor with the malnourished child

In that sense the family was our society and malnourishment stood for all unsupported critical needs. But the metaphor is also literal. When we as a society cut back funding for school lunch programs it adds to childhood malnuitrition for just one example.

Many children who died in New Orleans during Katrina would still be alive today if the the flood management infra structure had not been allowed to crumble. That is a direct life and death example, but more pervasive are indirect negative effects that threaten our well being, children AND adults alike, if we refuse to invest in our future. Dust to dust, ashes to ashes, everything crumbles with time. Things either must be maintained or replaced or new ways found to do without them in more sensible ways. The latter seems to be the focus of your comments, which is fine. Current ways are not always the best ways, but sticking to the current ways with deteriorating tools that become less effecient every year makes the least sense of all. And that is what we are doing when we drain money away from our collective future into the pockets of an increasingly affluent few.