Why I Worry: Reasons for Pessimism

I know it serves no purpose to worry about what you can't control, but I can't help it.

I worry about terrorism. Just a few examples: mutated smallpox released in an airport lobby, hacking the U.S. Treasury, a reservoir poisoned with a communicable pathogen, a suicide bomber detonating a nuke from his truck in Times Square or near a major power station.

I worry there won't be enough work to go around. Ever more onerous costs of employing an American will accelerate use of technology and offshoring to replace Americans.

I worry that despite 75 years of massive effort and multi-trillion-dollar spending on education and job training, the achievement gap remains as wide as ever. And as ever more jobs require ever more reasoning and technical skills, I fear the achievement gap will expand yet further. 

I worry about Americans' health care  The system is already overwhelmed, killing 440,000 patients due to medical errors every year.  Add millions more people, mainly low-paying, and we're all at literally grave risk.

I worry about a country that can't restrain itself from spending more than it has, no matter how big its debt nor how fast that debt is growing. Eventually it will come back to haunt us: perhaps the U.S. owned by China, perhaps wildly inflating dollars, rampant poverty. I'm not smart enough to know what will happen. I do know that massive debt is a house of cards.

I worry that the least intelligent people have the most babies.

I worry about dying--usually painful, protracted, ending in nothingness.

I worry I'm not as savvy as I need to be as a counselor. I try soooh hard with every client yet too many don't end up successful.

I worry that I'm not a good enough husband.

I worry that all my books, articles, blog posts, and tweets won't have made enough of a difference.

I wish I could be more optimistic and where that's not rational, that I could anesthetize myself with fun, religion, etc. Alas, I can't.