Shoulda, Woulda, Coulda

As I watch the United States economy slipping farther and farther into recession like territory I can't help but wonder if things could have been different? Sure, I know most of this mess is caused by the major downturn in housing, and serious overvaluations in some real estate markets such as California and Florida, but still that is not the case here in Michigan, and many other states through the country.

Most of us were just hit with problems caused by outsourcing ever single job we could to places were we could manufacture things cheaper like China and India. Now with the dollar plummeting to new lows and the Chinese filling our kids with lead and threating to sell ever dollar they own we have to look back and think... hmmm perhaps we made a mistake somewhere along the lines.

The truth is things could have been much different if we were looking towards the future instead of concentrating on making a quick buck. $100 oil is here and doesn't appear to be going anywhere with winter time just around the corner and how did we plan for this as a country? The answer is we didn't.

What we should have done was start manufacturing as much alternative energy as we can, solar, wind, geothermal ect. We should have been building these plants up like crazy over the past few years, especially with all the science coming out about climate change, and how almost ever scientist out there is SCREAMING at us that we need to change our ways before it was just too late... so what did we do... nothing.

If the state and local governments could have put in major tax incentives (not the half-ass ones we have in place now) for business's and residences to go green this would have created a huge demand for these type of items which would in turn create jobs and supported our economy. Not too mention people could have been buying all new houses that were "green" and would actually save on heating and electricity cost. Instead we are looking at a weak dollar, depreciating house values, high oil, a shrinking middle class and a climate that from the looks of it is going to cause the world to become much less livable in the very near future.

Take a look at the video below... even the International Energy Agency is telling us that we missed the boat.