Opinion Piece by Jim Dickens 11/26/2024
It’s the time of the year when we give thanks and make resolutions about the future. Our family now has a tradition where we sit down and share our charitable donation choices and the reasons why. It’s a deeper sharing beyond sports and the weather resulting in constructive heartfelt emotion. I want to share where I am coming from these days.
As I’ve said before, it’s been a good run and what I really want is for my kids to have a good future with liberty and prosperity. This brings me to my future fears around the sustainability of our current best in class lifestyle. I worry our financial, environmental, and geopolitical trajectories are unsustainable in my children’s lifetime and we lack the governmental leadership to correct.
Financially, we Americans are creating an unsustainable financial debt and the borrowing benefit has accrued to those with assets, generally the older generations. This leaves our children with huge debt to carry and inheritance as the main avenue to prosperity. It’s not the financial future we want for our children.
Environmentally, our population is growing as is the resource use per person. The energy and materials generated for the basics of food, shelter, and transport remain extractive and polluting. Climate change, biodiversity, and clean water are foundational to remaining civilized. The worse we make it the harder it will be for our children to address and remain civilized.
We Americans love our liberty and are willing to die for it. Well amazingly there is a large land war going on in Europe with well over a million casualties and almost 10 million refugees. Russian dictator, Putin invaded fledgling democracy Ukraine and our American response has been relatively weak. Geopolitically America needs allies that value liberty as well. Our children need liberty expanding in the world.
Somehow, we have American leadership that is incapable of addressing the issues above. Our top leaders in the executive, legislative and judicial branches are octogenarian in low mental capacity, declining health and out of touch.
So my charitable donations, voice, vote and action will go to allaying those fears until I’m 65. Then they will be subject to my kid’s approval because I too am in declining health and getting out of touch 🙂
R1T Tour 
Slim – Appreciate your very thoughtful global analysis. My only recommendation is that you push the age of allowing your kids to direct your charity from age 65 to 75. They are young and bright, it is true. But you have the wisdom and experience of years that they do not yet possess. Thanks for another great blog! S/F Ferg
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