There seem to be vast differences between Republicans and Democrats, the Right and the Left, and the Conservatives and the Liberals. And I suppose that there are. However, the one thing that they both share equally…is disastrous. That shared belief is that growth is good. More is better and “we ain’t had enough of nothin’ yet.”

Both sides wage an endless verbal war against the other, promising more growth if elected. Once elected, the party temporarily in charge leads America steadily down a dead end road. When things get really bad under one party, we elect the other party until things get really bad under that party and then we change out the blind horse for the three legged one. It’s nice of us to allow them to take turns being wrong.

Let’s take fuel as a current and prime example of stupidity and blind leadership. The production of fossil based fuels is limited by the finite existence of the reserves on earth. Since we don’t have truck traffic to Mars at this point, what we have here on earth seems to simple minded fellow like myself as being pretty much what we have to go around.

Now say that you graduated with honors from like the third grade and held a firm understanding that fuel was limited. How would you approach economic growth when armed with the concrete knowledge that greater economic growth requires a greater use of fuel?

I’m quite sure that no third grader would suggest expanding the population and economic output as a fix for curbing the use of diminishing natural resources. Only Congress people are that dumb…with the possible exception of the majority of Americans who believe the Congress people.

Population growth has another great disadvantage, in that it distances us from our leaders. Most of us have never met our leaders and really don’t know a thing about them. They remain remote from us hidden away in the masses in some foreign place known only as D.C. or Denver or Indianapolis. They pass through on election year giving a speech from the back of a pickup dressed in their new jeans and western shirts trying to convince the public that they are just like us. Okay, there is the exception that they have limo service, health insurance, a pension, and no accountability for their actions, but otherwise, pretty much the same.

When they stand on the back of that pickup, Democrat or Republican, they promise growth. They talk about cutting back on oil consumption, they talk about being addicted to oil, they talk about our dependency on foreign nations, they talk about water and air quality issues, and then they promise the one thing that not only got us to this point, but the one thing that will absolutely, positively without question, make it worse; they promise more growth.

We live in a flawed economic situation that is playing out due to excessive growth and yet, we elect the person who promises to accelerate the journey to the end for Middle America. Go figure.