If there's anything the last few years have taught us...

[randomness]

...it's that when they're faced with a hard deadline, politicians' first impulse is to kick the can down the road.

It's been true in Europe, and it seems to be the same in the States.

Comments

[gee-tar.livejournal.com]

It's not exactly a new phenomenon. Heck, even the framers of the Constitution kicked the problem of slavery down the road rather than deal with it.

[r-ness.livejournal.com]

Truthfully, you win this thread.

I didn't intend to imply that can-kicking was particularly recent, but that the last few years (from the 2008 crisis on) were a fine illustration of it. But really, you nailed it. Cheers.

[achinhibitor.livejournal.com]

Though at the time (or so I was taught) there was reason to believe that the problem would actually go away over time. Slavery was becoming uneconomical because sorting the cotton fibers from the cotton seeds by hand was too expensive. But then Eli Whitney invented the cotton gin and cotton became very profitable...