Word: heedless
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...cars to a family, air conditioning in private homes and appliances galore, participating fully in a consumer economy that already makes heavy demands on the world's environment even when it is confined to a mere fraction of the world's population. It is obvious that the wasteful, heedless life now enjoyed by the West cannot be made available to everyone without stretching the energy resources of the earth, as well as its adaptive capacity, beyond the breaking point...
...deeper tremors emanate from the kind of change that occurs only once every few decades. America is going through a historic transition from the heedless borrow-and-spend society of the 1980s to one that stresses savings and investment. In the short run, this helped trigger the cyclical recession, which is likely to run its course in the next few months. But when it's over, America will not simply go back to business as usual...
ONCE IN A GREAT WHILE, A DEEPLY FELT NOTION SEEMS TO grip almost everyone at the same time. In 1991 Americans said, "Enough," and became sensible again. Out went heedless consumerism, the cult of the new, the expectations of Having It All. As the 1980s began to come into focus as a misguided era of borrowed luxury, Americans got back to basics. They cut down on spending, started to pay off their debts and learned to make do with less. It happened just in time. The recession, which at first seemed quick and painless, took a scary dive...
Others quickly follow. Mack's discreet little affair with his secretary (Mary-Louise Parker) threatens to become indiscreet. His best friend, a heedless movie producer (Steve Martin), is permanently crippled in a mugging. His wife Claire (the luminous Mary McDonnell) discovers an abandoned baby on her morning run and, afflicted by empty-nest malaise (their son is growing up), begins a campaign to adopt the foundling. An earthquake thunders through town, a neighbor dies suddenly, and overhead the police helicopters endlessly circle, their probing searchlights constant reminders of disorder and imminent sorrow...
That will be the painful consequence of the heedless and high-flying '80s. "We live in the box we've got ourselves in," says Lyle Gramley, chief economist for the Mortgage Bankers Association of America and a former Fed governor. "We are paying the price for what we did in the past with this enormous federal deficit. The price goes beyond the poor functioning of the economy now. Here we are, this great, wealthy, affluent nation, and we cannot afford to rebuild our highways or bridges. We cannot afford to have a really serious war on drugs. We cannot afford...