One of the challenges of living in today’s world is that we are inundated with information. This makes separating the signals of true change–that is the real harbingers of change–from “noise” very difficult.
This quote, “A wealth of information creates a poverty of attention,” gets at the nub of the issue.
And to what issues should we be paying attention?
The Epstein files, the rise of authoritarianism, the erosion of democratic norms, the military buildup near Iran, the over-fishing of the world’s oceans, and the accelerating pace of climate change are all important.
But so, too, are some other issues.
As a futurist, I find it both interesting and disturbing at how little news coverage is being paid to the announcement two weeks ago that the U.S. national debt will balloon from $40 trillion to $64 trillion in the next decade!
If you don’t understand the magnitude of the issue, let me spell it out for you. Another way to read $64 trillion is $64,000,000,000,000. (It’s a big, big number.)
This figure can still be difficult for most people to grasp, so here is an easier way to understand $64 trillion: If the figure was divided equally it could also create 64 million individual millionaires.
I won’t belabor the point, but I encourage you to read this article on the looming crisis. This sentence, in particular, jumped out at me: “The US dollar is a currency of a country which can no longer govern itself.”
I don’t claim to know precisely when the “shit will hit the fan,” but it is going to hit the fan, and when it does you have to be prepared for a world in which higher interest rates, significant reductions in long-standing government programs such as Medicare and Social Security, and/or rampant inflation are daily realities.
Whether you want to future-proof your retirement plan or your company’s business, this “$64 trillion question” is a question you cannot afford NOT to pay attention to.
Forewarned is forearmed.
Until next week, keep thinking about the future.
Jack
