Winston Churchill supposedly said that the United States will always do the right thing, after first exhausting all other alternatives. Apparently, there’s no evidence he actually said any such thing. But the sentiment suits the present situation, and it’s high time we all began to notice that waiting until its too late is not a viable strategy. We are presently fast approaching plunges into the abyss with all the foresight of lemmings.

1) For thirty years or more it has been obvious that a demographic catastrophe is ahead. Seniors have been promised Social Security and Medicare and now the bill is coming due as the Baby Boomers are expected to live longer than previous generations.

The generations still working whose payroll taxes are supposed to fund the entitlements of their seniors, but due to changes in the economy and the decline in private sector benefits, they are earning less and many are dependent on entitlements of their own, especially Medicaid.

There are only a few ways out. Many more people will have to settle for fewer benefits, which could spark immense social unrest and slow an economy built on consumer spending. Or, all of us, especially the wealthier among us, will have to pay more in taxes to pay for the social safety net. Or some sort of price controls will have to be imposed on the drivers of rising costs for medical care, hospitals, and pharmaceuticals. Or a lot more, not less immigrants might be admitted with skills that will make them taxable cash cows. Obviously there is no political will to propose any of the above.

2) Then there’s the looming zombie apocalypse to consider. Thanks to improved public heath and miracle drugs, like statins that have increased the odds of dodging death by coronary artery disease, we look forward to many more people living long enough to get Alzheimer’s, an agonizing crawl to the finish line entailing bankrupting long term care fthat will ruin millions of individuals and their entitlement programs, which are predicated on shorter lifespans.

3) Another related economic disruption also looms. Trump voters my yearn for a return to King Coal or even King Cotton, but the past is past. The ages of iron and steel have been replaced by the age of silicon and bioengineering. We already have robot factories and look forward to self-driving vehicles, AI and other wonders that will spell the end for millions of traditional jobs in the next 20 years. What becomes of a surplus population when as many as 45% of jobs are no longer performed by humans? How do an economy and a society adapt to changes so large and rapid? Who will pay the taxes to run society? How will humans earn their daily bread when the machines have taken over?

4) We have also put off repairing decaying infrastructure for decades and have no plan to fund the huge updates that are overdue. So another slow motion degradation of daily life can be anticipated with dangerous roads, bridges, airports, waterways taking lives and making life miserable. Think of what happened in Flint, Michigan, the levees in New Orleans and the many inadequacies revealed in Houston, then multiple them by tens or thousands from coast to coast.

5) All of which are small change problems alongside climate change which many try to blithely ignore, having elected a man who believes it to be a hoax. Most of the rest of the world has noticed and is trying to plan for its effects and mitigate them. Even oil companies now admit their long-range planning takes curbs on fossil fuels iand the rise of clean energy nto account. The Pentagon, which has to plan decades ahead to meet all contingencies, regards climate as a strategic worry. Many present day naval ports, for example, will be useless as the waters rise.

We have already seen how climate change is making equatorial lands inhospitable and has spurred huge, disruptive, dangerous migrations. So far, efforts to stem this flow have been about as effective as the humans in Game of Thrones were in walling off the White Walkers. And once productive farmland will succumb to drought. Crop belts will shift hundreds of miles. Fish stocks will be depleted as ocean temperatures rise. Mass extinctions of species are likely. Diseases of man, beast and plants will invade new territories. Global supply chains on which out prosperity and appetites depend will be massively disrupted.

And in the face of these very serious, possibly existential threats, the United States acts the ostrich. President Nero is content to fiddle oldies. Congress is so balkanized and focused on short term electoral politics that no concerted action is on the agenda. Government is bad. Tax cuts or more entitlements placate the base. Problem solved.

But the problems remain, and aren’t even being acknowledged. H.G. Wells in his later years warned against a coming world war, among other threats, but saw his concerns being ignored. He wanted this as his epitaph: “I told you so. You damned fools.” Actuaries, economists, climate scientists, epidemiologists must all feels the same frustration. Wake up! Winter is coming!