Issue56【六人行小组8.5】by odie

odiehereUID: 2502172

TOPIC: ISSUE56 - "Governments should focus more on solving the immediate problems of today rather than trying to solve the anticipated problems of the future."
WORDS: 391          TIME: 00:70:00          DATE: 2010/8/5 16:53:24
Government officials are always involved in a series of critical choices between alternative actions to undertake in reaction to problems. One eternal type of hard choices is to choose between today and tomorrow: shall actions be taken to cure current problems, so as to satisfy the majority of voters, or shall long-term plans be made and implemented to avoid future problems, so as to benefit our offspring? My opinion is that, governments have to strike a balance between the present and the future, with an emphasis on the prevention of future troubles.
To begin with, future problems will be caused by our mal-treatment of issues at present.  Just like most human illness is not formed in one day, and is the result of a relatively long-time development in our bodies, our social problems are also the outcome of contradictions in the previous period. Take a look at our current social and political problems, we may find that, almost without exception, they have their roots buried in the past. For instance, the current problem of high jobless rate in the US is a direct effect of the economic turmoil that has been resulted from the sub-prime crisis in 2008. However, the sub-prime crisis, in turn, was a reflection of the long-time lack of control and limitation in the banking system over the crazy and over-optimistic transactions ever since the start of this century. While we are debating fiercely everyday on what solution to take in order to stimulate the job market, have we reflect seriously on the fact that we have missed a lot of golden opportunities in the past to prevent the coming of the current situation?
The awareness of being alert to possible future problems and draw clear blueprints to guide our direction is important for the government not only in its dealing of our social issues, but in its conduction of international affairs. One unfortunate example is the Iraq War. We are now clear that before the start of the war, the Bush administration had not done enough of their homework in planning the situation after the war. Therefore, we have encountered renewed problems and increasingly higher death tolls of both our army men and Iraq civilians. The sad lesson learnt from this war shall always serve as a reminder of the importance of looking into the future before making our current steps.
Anticipating future problems and try every means to avoid them will make it far easier for our next generation to keep a healthy society. This line of reasoning is not difficult to understand if we look at what we have been doing in the education sector. In essence, the investment in education cannot yield any immediate outcome for us, because it often takes years to bring up a qualified talent, and even decades to grow up a strong discipline. Therefore, our efforts and cash dedicated to education is essentially a contribution to the future and a prevention of future problems resulted from poor education. However, citizens and our governments both generally believe that this investment is worthwhile, in the sense that the quality of education determines the future of a nation to a great extent.
Historical experiences have effectively informed us of the danger with confining ourselves to the current world, and the importance of having a touch on the future to save us from unwanted future troubles. For this reason, governments have the duty to be responsible for the voters by being responsible for the future.