You Fix the Budget

The NY Times O.K., You Fix the Budget is a very cool interactive tool allowing us plebes the chance to fix the budget by making cuts on virtually every part of government, a concept both alluring and challenging to say the least but there are the usual suspects not factored into the equation able to screw the pooch in ways defying the imagination. They are...

Tech: Nothing is discussed about the disruptive aspect of technology, the double exponential acceleration of same that will impact the budget at ever increasing levels as we move toward the mystical year of 2030 or the estimated start point of the singularity. 

Global Warming: By 2030, the full impact of GW may finally be starting to set in as chaotic systems of which GW is a part, is an environment driven by phase transitions whereby changes experienced by the system are anything but linear and cannot be predicted because of the law of initial conditions.

Fossil fuel depletion: By 2030, the cost of oil will be immense. The disruptive impact of this cannot be predicted as oil is the prime driver of today's economy. Without it, modern civilization stops, period. Coal as replacement is not viable due to low energy density and high pollution factor though we continue to burn it with little regard to the impact it's having on climate change. Solar as viable replacement is possible due to nanotech and full understanding of photosynthesis but predictions regarding this is guesstimate at best due to the inherent limits of knowledge man will always experience thanks to  quantum mechanics, the uncertainty principle and chaos. Ditto for algae and other biofuel substitutes and nuclear fusion, cold or otherwise.

Financial Follies: If the current ponzi scheme system of finance continues unabated, courtesy of Wall Street and significant others, the ever increasing mountain of US debt could bankrupt the nation before 2030 even though the Fed thinks the dubious option of Quantitative Easing (the art of printing money) may get us out of this dreadful predicament by papering over the debt with currency possibly resembling that of the Weimar Republic's.

Even though these variables are not part of the app, take a shot anyway. It's better than just complaining about it, right?