The Stars or Us?

Jeffrey Sachs has a fair number of critics but his recent article, "The Failing U.S. Government", in Scientific American does make some strong points. It is obvious that the government is not operating on all cylinders. Sachs' reasons for this failure are the privatization of regulation, lack of planning, lack of skilled managers and the inability to see problems and their resolution in a unified manner.

I see a more basic reason - the quality of our leaders and of us. It isn't necessarily only a lack of talent, but, more so, it is an unwillingness to consider issues from a national point of view. And, as with so much of life, the fault is not in our stars but in ourselves. We elect these people.