Homeland Security

We were so distracted by Homeland Security we took our eye off home and land security. The Federal Government gave us a Greenspan that stretched our credit limits to the subprime.

If it comes down to growing my own vegetables I'll starve. The fastest way to kill a plant is to give it to me. Plants are basically vegetable matter stuck in dirt instead of a pretty water vase. Disposability overcomes their nutritional value in my hands. I can wither a houseplant at a glance. Imagine what I could do to a whole food crop!

Demolition—that’s the business to be in right now. Mashing down houses abandoned by residents, stripped by bandits, ruined hulls too expensive to fix versus the cost of bull dozing.

And secondly—fixed-term marriages. A five-year, or a twenty-year marriage. Sort of like a savings bond, it gains interest as it approaches maturity. As the officiate, you get paid for the marriage license and divorce fees up front at the beginning, which bites off any cost of inflation for the happy/unhappy couple, then the marriage dissolves at the designated time. It’s really just an elaborate prenuptial agreement, where all current and future assets are divided upon at the commencement, instead of argued over at the termination, at which point they can either recommit or leave it be.

Marriage isn't what it used to be when it was invented. People live longer now. You say "I do" and you're going to keep “doing” for like 50 years or so. And how much of that really works out? (If we had to go to high school indefinitely we’d never graduate.) Whereas, if a couple can commit to five years, just five years, they might make it longer than they think. A time-limited marriage would force them to learn to commit, instead of taking the relationship for granted, and then wandering off from each other.