To keep the national debt and looming entitlement shortages from threatening defense funds and other necessities, we should urge our elected officials and candidates to vote for such deficit reduction measures as those proposed by Sens. Tom Coburn and/or Joe Lieberman, and/or the House Budget Committee.
The latter is expected to bring in surpluses and start paying down the debt by 2040.
Meanwhile, though, any debt over 90 percent of GDP is bad for economic growth. We are also vulnerable to any changes in foreign creditor sentiment. Thus, we should try to pay off the debt sooner.
We might have the U.S. government partner with experts (as discussed at www.rain-tree.com/facts.htm) to show landowners how to harvest the rainforests more profitably (and sustainably) — in return for a 20 percent lease of the land for some term.
Regarding subsistence farmers, a practice called Inga alley cropping is discussed at www.rainforestsaver.org. Regarding the cutting down of trees for firewood, an organization known as Solar Cookers International obviates such need for perhaps $5 a person. For any of the world’s lumber companies needing assistance in learning sound practices of selectivity without clear-cutting, we could make that knowledge available for a fee.
Alex Sokolow
Santa Monica
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