The Disappointed Idealist

I have never been accused of being an optimistic person. But where is that fine line where you cross from realistically anticipating potential negative consequences of your actions to focusing on the negative? There is a certain safety in being able to predict the negative and having a back-up plan for it. The safety from having a back-up plan comes from the fact that you can honestly say 'worst case scenario, I will still be OK'. Does that mean that you're focusing on the potential negative issues or does that make you rational and prudent? Surely, we all want the best for ourselves and we all hope for the best. But belief based on the 'happy arrangement of planets' conspiring to ensure the best case scenario happens to you with no basis in fact may find you helpless in the face of 'unfortunate arrangement of planets'. Because despite what we might like to believe, we are not the center of the universe  and the universe does not conspire to achieve ou

It just so happens that yesterday I was talking to someone about this and then today I found this article: How Michigan literally poisoned an entire city to save a few bucks . I will let you read the details, but the conclusion is what needs to remain: "Being a cheapskate can be expensive indeed." The article is written from an economic point of view, so I will adopt the same tone from then on, but let's not forget the damage done to actual children and human beings, a damage which cannot be measured in money. But, by all means, let's be as cynical as the people making these decisions and let's just talk in terms of how much money these decisions will cost them (because, yes, money makes the world go round and health is a minor issue). We've just come out of a period of crisis. During this time lots of companies laid off a lot of people for reasons of cost-saving. I can totally understand the decision, hard as it may be for me as an employee, what I am