Of dentistry and economics.I woke up with a start. A sick feeling of dread settled in the pit of my stomach. Yes, I got out of two hours of work this morning, but I had to do it the hard way. This was the day of my two-hour dentist appointment.
Years of negligence—ignoring problems I knew existed—have finally come to fruition. Yes, I know an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure, but alas, it is too late for me. Now I must pay my dues.
On an economic level, most of us feel a little queasy and anxious. And we are surely paying our dues. Whatever will happen now was set into play long ago, by years of negligence—ignoring problems we knew existed, yet we did very little about them. Now we are left to deal with the results. The ramifications of our negligence are everywhere. This is hurting most of us a little, and some of us a lot, like those just laid off from Maui Land & Pine.
Economic experts have predicted this for some time. Over a half-century ago, a geologist even predicted what is going on today at the gas pump. He argued that at a certain point, oil production peaks, and thereafter it steadily declines regardless of demand. In 1956 he predicted that U.S. oil production would peak around 1970 and decline thereafter. He was right.
So this is not a news flash. The dinosaurs quit pooling into fossil fuel for our motoring pleasure quite some time ago. Because production can no longer meet demand, the price of oil has escalated, and is likely to continue to escalate, degrading economies and living standards along the way. Rising energy costs impact food prices, and Maui’s low-income families already can’t afford to buy groceries because of the cost of transportation.
While we sat contemplating a future without fossil fuel, the future arrived. Now we are told to expect the unexpected (see front page story). The “unexpected” closing of airlines and the layoffs of hundreds of Maui residents are the direct and painful results of economic negligence.
The County Council has awoken to the reality and urgency of the situation, calling a special meeting to address the issue (see front page story). If our past county councils had the foresight to do so, maybe we wouldn’t be so shocked—like the proverbial deer in our gas-guzzler’s headlights.
Perhaps a shot of novocaine in the form of sales tax relief might afford us some temporary release from our economic pain while we work in earnest on harnessing wind, solar and wave power. These are the keys to our economic future.
I have a great dentist, and my experience was painless. I hope the same for Maui County and the rest of the country, but I’m afraid this is going to hurt a little—maybe a lot. We shouldn’t have waited until we were in pain. Now we are paying our dues.