Society on the downhill slid

The more and more I read the news paper, and watch the news. And ultimately watch the worlds events unfold around me. I’m left wondering when things will be positive, when we will be less fearful of what disaster, economic or natural is going to hit us next. After World War II the world had just recovered from a horrible experience. But following that awful event came a time of renewal, and a general sense of well-being and hope. People saw a future and there was no stopping us. Jobs were created at home and a blueprint was made of the "Ideal" way of life. The suburban way of life, people were happy the government seemed to be doing a good job for the most part. Cities got larger new technologies were being developed at an amazing speed. Civil rights and freedoms were breaking new ground and democracy was being expected of all nations.
But then something happened that sense of invincibility soon faded. But why and when did this happen? Personally I don’t know I was born in the 80's this trend of things going downhill was well in motion by 1986. But that’s what history is for, to educate us on the past. It seems that in our hast to move forward, to enhance our, at the time conception of "Quality of life" we made some very short sighted and stupid decisions. Not considering what the implications of the decisions we made at the time would be. But why should we have? Everything was good at the time.
North Americas over zealous embrace of the automobile and the suburbs were probably the most miss guided moves we made. Creating a state of belief that in order for our lives to function we needed cars and big houses cut off from the city. That highways were a better investment then public transit.
It all happened so fast no one could really even see the implications till it was too late.
As our markets became more and more intertwined with the production of oil the option to back away became less and less ascertainable. As corporations tightened their chokehold on the public and government alike our ability to say no also went out the window.
The United States of America was the power and dominate force in the world markets. And it was a situation of "Our way or the poor house" Other nations ultimately had to follow suet with the Americans so be successful in the world markets, no matter how detrimental the actions of the USA were proving to be.
So here we sit in the year 2008, Global warming is no longer a myth but an outright pending disaster. Crude oil has surpassed an earlier believed impossible $100 a barrel. We have used over 50% of the worlds accessible oil reserves and considering when we began using oil on a large scale that’s pretty scary. Drinkable fresh water is getting to be something fewer and fewer nations have a plentiful supply of.
And the almighty US dollar is sliding and with no sign of bouncing back.
The former most powerful economy in the world is now facing a serious resection.
And has the largest deficit among any developed nation in the world, over 2 trillion dollars most of which is owed to China. The only thing keeping the American economy afloat is its spending on the military and its oil companies over seas, Which I might add are in politicly turbulent areas vulnerable to a vast assortment of issues. Should one of these entities go under, so too will the entire US economy.
Other nations are looking at ensuring their social safety nets are strong enough to buffer an economic down turn which is being forecasted. As well as dealing with massive shortfalls in infrastructure repair. And the ageing baby boomer population.
Alas nothing looks promising these days, and there does not seem to be a 1960's coming up anytime soon. I hate to seem like a dooms day sayer but this is the world were faced with, just starling at how we went downhill so soon so fast.

In defense of the mistakes we made in the past, The only way we learn is by trial and error. With many of the things that today are proving to be horrible ideas. The suburbs as an example, no one had tried this concept before, It seemed like a logical idea large residential areas with wide streets safe from heavy traffic for families to grow up in. But these became a wasteland devoid of a real sense of community and very much separated from everything. Making owning a car a necessity not an option. Cities like Mississauga are struggling to develop bus routs that will be able to function in these mazes of subdivisions that were not designed with public transit in mind. Who knew filling your car with gas would cost so much it would become prohibitive. Who knew that commute that was designed by city planers 30 years ago to take 20 minutes would today take 1 hour, and “Rush hour” itself would ironically become 3 hours long. What a difference a few decades can make.