In the Western world Economic and Political systems have developed in such a way that Governments are forced to focus on the short term. While the current economic strategy may appear to be logical (from a short term perspective) the US-led economy is actually damaging and in some cases destroying the enviromental and social systems required for long term prosperity; the flaws in our economic system are actually driving unsustainability.
One of our economic system flaws is the failure to incorporate externalities into price, another being the failure to consider limits to growth, and probably the biggest of all being the under-valuing of future generations due to time-value-of-money concepts.
Electricity generation is one example of an industry which fails to incorporate externalities into price. We all know the drawbacks of this industry, nuclear waste, burning coal, acid rain, damaged rain forests, and lots of other negative impacts. These are the real costs paid by us (society) that are not included in the price of electricity which in turn creates an illusion that electricity generation is cheap when in fact this is anything but the truth. This "subsidization" causes vast over consumption and signifigantly drives humanity's unsustainable state.
Failure to consider limits to growth is another of the major flaws in our system. In nature plants and forests grow and then level off at the points where they have reached a sustainable balance with those systems which share the same space or resources as they do forming a natural economy. The idea that a business or national economy should grow indefinitely in a world of finite resources is illogical and highly unrealistic.
Time-value-of-money is one of those basics of economic concept. It's based on the idea that resources are worth more today than they ever will be at any point in the future. This makes sense from a reductionistic perspective because it is better to have resources, such as food, today rather than in the future. However, this concept is illogical from a systems perspective because it says people and resources beyond 50 to 100 years are worthless. Therefore, protecting them would be a foolish economic decision. This concept often causes business and political leaders to act as if the people they love the most, their grandchildren, are worthless.
The overall goal of any economic, political or financial system should be to maximize the well-being of society over the long-term and we have too many flaws in our political, financial and economic systems which contradict that goal completely.
