Some Paths not Taken but that Might be Worth It

This was in Eric Weiner's The Geography of Bliss:

"When the last tree is cut,

When the last river is emptied,

When the last fish is caught,

Only then will Man realize that he can not eat money."


It was painted on a roadside sign in the country of Bhutan, a country ranking high on the bliss scale. Bhutan? It's the country north of India, near Nepal.

There are some very interesting reasons why Bhutan is high on Mr. Weiner's list of bliss-filled countries. Education is free to every citizen. So is health care. No one smokes. Dastardly crimes like murder almost never happen, and that heavy cloud of fear that lingers over people in more crime ridden countries is absent. And the army, as he puts it, makes booze, not war. They run the beer brewery and the rum distillery. Imagine, they bring in revenue instead of hogging the national budget. Maybe that is why education and health care can be free.


It's an interesting path to think about.

Here's another one, this time from Japan: green as a national policy. This is from a panel discussion among the editors of some of Japan's top newspapers.

"The Japanese economy will not grow unless environmental issues are overcome. Conversely, dealing with the environment can be seen as a business opportunity. "
Naoaki Okabe; Nikkei, Inc.

(read the whole thing at http://www.asahi.com/english/Herald-asahi/mediatalk.html)

To tell the truth, the NY Times writer Thomas Friedman says essentially the same thing. Is anyone out there listening?