Shortages – Large and Growing – The Ukiah Daily Journal

When “outgoing” is greater than “incoming,” a deficit occurs. In political discussions, this usually refers to the U.S. budget deficit, which has risen from $5.7 trillion in 2000 to $35.3 trillion today. Bush the Younger spent $4.3 trillion on the “war on terror” in Afghanistan and Iraq. Obama spent $9.6 trillion on bailing out the economy after banks crashed the housing market. Trump spent $8.1 trillion on tax cuts for the wealthy. Biden spent $7.6 trillion to keep the economy out of a depression during the COVID pandemic. Republicans spent money on wars and billionaires, and Democrats spent money on keeping the economy alive, with both parties reflecting their core concerns.

The shortage is large and growing, with real economic consequences, but it is really just fiction. Money is a concept, of value only by collective social agreement. As a concept, money can be called into existence. When money is deposited in a bank, the bank can then lend out 10 times as much, created on nothing more than “trust.” Today, most money has no physical existence, but lives only as electronic data. The 8 percent that is “hard” currency has little physical value in itself.

While the budget deficit gets the most attention, especially during campaign years, other deficits have a bigger impact in real life. And unlike money, solutions can’t be created out of thin air.

The U.S. is losing topsoil 5 times faster than it is being created, for a net deficit of 58 billion tons over the past 160 years. Healthy topsoil has 200 billion organisms per cubic foot, essential for plant nutrition and water retention. As this living system breaks down and soil erodes, growing food becomes harder and more expensive, and what is grown has diminishing nutritional value. Yet commercial agriculture focuses on making money to service its debt, which takes priority over restoring topsoil.

Another shortage is groundwater, which supplies drinking water for half the U.S. population and 50 billion gallons per day for agriculture. Groundwater recharge rates vary, some over thousands of years. As population and agricultural production increase, using larger pumps on deeper wells, groundwater shortages are increasing, with land sinking as much as 5 inches per year in some areas. The changing climate has affected rainfall patterns, causing floods and droughts, making groundwater extraction more critical and uncertain.

All physical systems begin to deteriorate as soon as they are built, requiring periodic maintenance to identify problems and make the necessary repairs. This is an ongoing expense, often postponed due to budget constraints or the desire to appear “more profitable,” creating a physical deficit that grows over time. The long-term consequences can be disastrous and expensive.

The U.S. has over 90,000 dams, with an average age of 60 years. Engineering and seismic design have advanced tremendously in that time, so what seemed like “good design” at the time is now questionable. Add in the consequences of “deferred maintenance” and over 2,000 are in poor condition, putting lives at risk if they fail, and repairs cost over $80 billion. As rainfall becomes more extreme, the pressure on these dams increases.

The U.S. has more than 600,000 bridges, 40 percent of which are more than 50 years old. Due to age and neglect, 46,000 are structurally deficient and in “poor” condition, yet they carry nearly 180 million vehicles per day. Mitigation will cost more than $100 billion, and the current repair rate is half of what is needed, resulting in increasing risk over time.

This is only a partial list of the real deficits that affect our social well-being. These problems arise from the growing focus on maximizing “profit” above all other concerns. For example, stock buybacks increase, which benefits shareholders but reduces the ability of industries to maintain their infrastructure or modernize their operations. Because wealth flows disproportionately to the very wealthy, who then use their political influence to lower their taxes, cities and states are under increasing budgetary pressure to delay essential planning and maintenance.

The common factor is the lack of planning of entire systems and the belief in exclusive profit. Making money by ignoring consequences and letting “someone else” pay for the cleanup is considered “good business.” Our culture honors those who accumulate more than everyone else, but laments when things fall apart, which happens because the world is so interconnected. This is a deep societal dysfunction, with thousands of years of history. Change may seem slow, but it is inevitable, because the alternative is collapse.

Crispin B. Hollinshead lives in Ukiah. This and previous articles can be found at cbhollinshead.blogspot.com.