The Strength of the Nation Is in Its Two-Headed Nails
By Donella Meadows
–June 23, 1988–
I am proud of my country in many ways, but it never occurred to me to be proud of its two-headed staging nails, until Dmitry Kavtaradze identified them as a secret of our national success.
Dmitry is visiting as part of a USA-USSR exchange program in environmental education. At home he is a professor of biology and [...]
Singapore Leads the Good Life Under a Benevolent Dictator
By Donella Meadows
–May 5, 1988–
Singapore has achieved the American dream, but not in the American way. It is a prosperous, clean city, with imposing skyscrapers and glittering shopping centers. The multinational corporations of the world are welcome here; you can buy any brand name you’ve ever heard of. The highways are lined with tropical flowers and crowded with BMWs. And [...]
The New American Scarcity
By Donella Medows
April 7, 1988
We can’t afford to keep the post offices open full time. We can’t fix the roads or educate our children properly. Whenever a political candidate proposes to fight drugs or shelter the homeless, the other candidates respond in a chorus, “But where are you going to get the money?”, as if money has suddenly become scarce.
In [...]
Not More Simple, Not More Fair
By Donella Meadows
–February 25, 1988–
Remember how the Great 1986 Tax Reform was going to make taxes more simple and more fair? That’s what the President and Congress told us, as they held press conferences to congratulate themselves for the wonder they had wrought.
Now the 1987 IRS forms have arrived and we can see exactly how all this simplicity and fairness [...]
The Stock Market Is Not the Economy
By Donella Meadows
–October 29, 1987–
“Everyone is a little puzzled,” said President Reagan on the day the Dow dropped 508 points. “I don’t know what meaning it might have, because all the business indicators are up.”
It was an appropriate statement for a President, an administration, and a decade that have consistently confused indicators with reality, the appearance of leadership with actual [...]
