United States – Page 2 – understand-culture

How Short-Term Thinking is Threatening our National Security

September 2022. Many of the problems we face today, from recent global recessions to climate change, can be traced back to short term thinking. This week, host Elisa is joined by Ari Wallach, futurist and author of Longpath: Becoming the Great Ancestors our Future Needs.

Ari acutely notes that we are at a significant turning point in history, one when bold change is needed to lay the groundwork for future generations. Yet, many Americans remain distracted by division and focused on the here and now.

How do we compare to other nations that might be taking a longer term view of themselves? And how can we rethink our political, corporate, and education systems to better adapt to, and take leadership in, establishing the innovations to come?

How Short-Term Thinking Makes the U.S. Worse at Fighting Wars

The Atlantic. 2012. In 2010, the U.S. adopted a new tactic in southern Afghanistan: it began to bulldoze entire villages to clear them of IEDs. The policy — reminiscent of Vietnam, of destroying villages to save them — spoke to a deeper issue with how the war was being fought.

Short-term objectives were emphasized over long term planning or consequence management. Destroying villages carries enormous long-term costs for a region, and the U.S. military just wasn’t paying attention to what those would be.

The Perils And Pitfalls Of Short-Term Thinking

Forbes. 2021. Life and work can at times prove to be exceedingly difficult, as the past year plus has shown, and we can all be forgiven if, in our current circumstances, we look not towards the future but the next moment of relief.

All the platitudes about tough times making for tough people are well and good, but they’re easier to offer from the outside rather than during a trying period. Let’s face it, this period of uncertainty is seemingly ever-ending. In these circumstances, it’s easy to see how people can make decisions aimed at the short-term amelioration of their problems that might work against their long-term interests.

Short Mid Long

Americans plan for the short- to mid-term. Long-term action cannot be planned for properly. It’s not worth the time, effort and investment.

Short-term thinking in corporate America is strangling the economy

Vox. 2016. Hillary Clinton has made short-term thinking in corporate America — also known as “quarterly capitalism,” a reference to the pressure companies feel to meet quarterly earnings predictions — a central issue in her campaign.

That issue has been bubbling beneath the surface of policy discussion for years, but it’s gained fresh attention as influential investors such as Warren Buffett and Lawrence Fink (of BlackRock, the world’s biggest asset holder), and politicians like Vice President Joe Biden, have stepped up to warn of the perils to our economy of turning away from a long-term perspective.

Germany’s Roman architecture

Although most of Germania was never conquered by the Romans, some of its western parts were incorporated into the Empire. Here the Romans brought all the hallmarks of their civilization, and left behind many impressive structures like bridges, baths, palaces and monuments. In this video we look at seven of these that are still standing in Germany.

Medieval Germany

The Middle Ages. Germany has a lot to offer when it comes to this time period: Historic city gates, church towers and half-timbred houses.

In German cities and towns, you’ll find a lot of well-preserved Medieval architecture, much of it on the UNESCO World Heritage list. From Lübeck in the North to Bamberg in the South – we show you seven cities and towns which will make you feel like you’re in a fairytale.

Romantic Rhine

Castles, palaces, vineyards, and a romantic river valley: experience a train journey along the Rhine with DW’s Hannah Hummel. It is considered the most beautiful train route in Germany! Let’s start in Cologne!

Julius Caesar on the Germans

This is an extract from Julius Caesar’s ‘Commentaries on the Gallic Wars’, first published between 58 and 49 BC. In 60 BC Rome was not yet an empire, but soon it would be. The momentous events of the next decades, many of which were put into motion by the famed politician Julius Caesar, were some of the most important and formative of the Western World.

We tell this story directly from the words of Caesar himself. Starting with his masterpiece ‘Commentaries on the Gallic Wars’ – first published over two thousand years ago yet still widely read all over the world today.

Long-term planning

The Technical University of Dortmund in Germany:

What will the city look like in the future? How do we deal with climate change? What will tomorrow’s transportation look like? How do we use the limited space we have? Spatial planning is an interdisciplinary engineering and social science field that deals with spatial developments in living, working and environmental conditions.

The different spatial levels range from the living environment and residential quarter to the urban district, the city as a whole, the region, the state and federal levels, and even the European and international levels. On all spatial levels, different technical orientations, such as urban development, housing, traffic, landscape, are considered in their interdependent relationships and effects.