[hedora]

Yeah; it's one thing to get a kickback so you waste $75M of taxpayer dollars on coal export terminals in Oakland in 2026.

It's quite another to do $75B in damage to Oakland in 20 years when climate change from the coal exports hit.

[toomuchtodo]

Indeed. The issue is that a subset of old folks (not all, importantly, the ones in power or outsized wealth) are running up the tab, and when they dip out (~2M 55+ age out every year in the US), the folks who remains are going to have to pay the tab (all manner of debt, local up to federal, climate costs, etc amounting to at least $50T dollars at a minimum, as of this comment).

US Federal debt: https://usafacts.org/answers/how-much-debt-does-the-us-have/...

US State and Local debt: https://reason.org/transparency-project/gov-finance-2025/

US Forward Looking Climate Costs: https://climate.uchicago.edu/news/u-s-weather-and-climate-di...

https://agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1029/2025GL11...

(not to mention off the books debt that isn’t counted as debt because it hasn’t been issued yet, think costs for deferred maintenance around infrastructure)