It takes some years on this vale of tears to come to that little bit of wisdom. Curiously, I think there are a fair number of people who understand it in their own lives - "It's always *something*" - but fail to see the same phenomenon in broader terms. If we fix one thing - say, widespread human starvation - we create another one - a planet with perhaps more people on it than it can support without a significant cost to the ecosystem or the climate. It's always something.
Benjamin Franklin recognized this two centuries ago when he wrote: "If a man could have half of his wishes, he would double his troubles."
It takes some years on this vale of tears to come to that little bit of wisdom. Curiously, I think there are a fair number of people who understand it in their own lives - "It's always *something*" - but fail to see the same phenomenon in broader terms. If we fix one thing - say, widespread human starvation - we create another one - a planet with perhaps more people on it than it can support without a significant cost to the ecosystem or the climate. It's always something.