The Most Memorable Movies of All Time – Part 4: the 70s and 80s

Posted on March 25, 2015 by ralphkoppel

Today I continue my series on memorable movies by looking at the movies of the 70s and 80s. In particular, I think it is interesting to compare the most memorable movies with the movie selected as the best picture of the year. At the end of this list I pick the most memorable movie of this time period. In my last segment, I will pick the most memorable movie of all time using the finalist from each time period. Of course, any list compilation is made to be disagreed with so I welcome other views on these movies.

To recap, here are the criteria for choosing the most memorable movie from each year:

Memorable movies become part of our culture. They may directly become part of our culture, showcase stars who become part of our culture, or launch a genre that becomes part of our culture.
Sequels of memorable movies are not eligible.

To update my comparison of memorable movies versus Oscar winners, in the seventies and eighties two of the twenty Oscar winners I named as the most memorable movie of the year. An additional seven were on my honorable mention list. This is a higher percentage than we had in the previous four decades. In total,of the 60 years I have examined so far, only five of the Academy Award winners made my list as the most memorable movie of the year. An additional sixteen made my honorable mention list. So 39 of the 60 Oscar winning movies during this period did not meet my criteria for being memorable.

1970 – MASH (Donald Sutherland, Elliott Gould)

Quotes – Oh Frank, My lips are hot. Kiss my hot lips.

Comments – This was a difficult year to pick the most memorable movie. Airport is mostly memorable for spawning a series of disaster films, but Airport itself is less memorable. Love Story has the top quote with “Love means never having to say you’re sorry.” Patton begins with the highly memorable speech in front of the American flag. MASH won out though for providing the most impact on our culture. While it can certainly be argued that the TV show was more memorable than the movie, the movie is what started it all. As an aside, it was an incredibly funny movie.

Honorable Mention – Love Story | Airport | Patton

Best Picture – Patton

1971 – Dirty Harry (Clint Eastwood)

Quotes – Do I feel lucky, well do you punk?

Comments – Dirty Harry’s great line, frequently misquoted as “Do you feel lucky, punk?” catapulted this movie to become possibly the most memorable cop movie of all time. Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory was a very strong contender for the most memorable honor. Gene Wilder’s classic performance as Willy Wonka far outshone Johnny Depp’s performance in the recent remake.

Honorable Mention – Fiddler on the Roof | The French Connection | A Clockwork Orange | Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory

Best Picture – The French Connection

1972 – The Godfather (Marlon Brando)

Quotes – I’m gonna make him an offer he can’t refuse.

Comments – The Godfather is unquestionably one of the most memorable movies of all time. If you don’t agree, I’ll have to make you an offer you can’t refuse. In most other years Deep Throat would be the most memorable movie both as the most memorable pornographic movie of all time and for its title being the namesake of the secret informant in the Watergate scandal. Fortunately since The Godfather was the most memorable, I did not have to try to find an acceptable film clip from Deep Throat.

Best Picture – The Godfather

1973 – The Exorcist (Linda Blair)

Quotes – Your mother sucks c**** in hell.

Comments – With green projectile vomit, Linda Blair’s head turning 360 degrees, and a sweet girl turning into a demon, The Excorcist may be the most talked about horror movie of all time. As a side note, I loved the Sting in 1973. It won best picture and it was the top grossing movie of the year. At the time, I would have bet just about anything that The Sting would become a classic memorable movie. Instead, it has virtually disappeared.

Honorable Mention – American Graffitti | The Way We Were | Soylent Green

Best Picture – The Sting

1974 – Blazing Saddles (Cleavon Little, Gene Wilder)

Non-Quote – The Campfire Scene

Comments – In 1974 Mel Brooks produced two of the most memorable comedies of all time in Blazing Saddles and Young Frankenstein. Between the two, however, the competition of most memorable isn’t even close. Blazing Saddles is ingrained in our culture as one of the funniest movies of all time. Note that The Godfather II is not eligible as a sequel to a memorable movie.

Honorable Mention – Young Frankenstein | Benji | Earthquake

Best Picture – The Godfather Part II

1975 – Jaws (Roy Scheider, Richard Dreyfuss, Robert Shaw)

Non-Quote – The Opening Swim

Comments – It is still hard to go to the beach without Jaws somewhere in your mind. Jaws is highly memorable in its own right as one of the greatest suspense movies of all time. I think that the score by John Williams is the best ever at having music heighten the emotional experience. Moreover, it was the breakout movie that made Stephen Spielberg one of the most famous directors of all time.

Honorable Mention – The Rocky Horror Picture Show | One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest | Monty Python and the Holy Grail

Best Picture – One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest

1976 – Rocky (Sylvester Stallone)

Non-Quote – Rocky Running Up The Steps

Comments –Rocky is the most famous boxing movie of all time and is the classic underdog story. It introduced Stallone as one of the top action movie stars ever. The stirring movie theme still makes the blood rush.

Best Picture – Rocky

1977 – Star Wars (Mark Hamill, Harrison Ford, Carrie Fisher)

Non-Quote – Use the force, Luke. | A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away.

Comments –Of all the years and all the memorable movies, this is by far the easiest choice. The Christmas after Star Wars was released, I worked in the toy department of a department store. The Star Wars action figures were not yet available so we sold gift cards that could later be exchanged for the figures but could be placed under the tree right away. In addition to being one of the most memorable movies of all time, Star Wars pioneered the tie in of toys and other merchandise to movies. A long long time later, Star Wars toys are still among the most popular. Star Wars has not left the forefront of our culture since its release and the new movie due later this year may be the most highly anticipated movie of all time.

Honorable Mention – Close Encounters of the Third Kind | Saturday Night Fever | Oh, God! |Annie Hall

Best Picture – Annie Hall

1978 – National Lampoon’s Animal House (John Belushi)

Quote – Toga! Toga! | Double Secret Probation

Comments –In 1977 it was easy to pick the most memorable movie. In 1978, it was much more difficult. Animal House, Grease, and Superman are all strongly a part of our culture, but I believe Animal House was slightly above the rest. It ranks as one of the funniest comedies of all time and spawned countless toga parties.

Honorable Mention – Grease | Superman | La Cage aux Folles | Halloween

Best Picture – The Deer Hunter

1979 – Alien (Sigourney Weaver)

Non-Quote – Alien bursting out of stomach

Comments –In my opinion, Alien is the scariest movie ever made. The constant suspense of knowing the alien was somewhere in the ship and never knowing when it was going to strike kept me constantly at the edge of my seat.

Best Picture – Kramer vs. Kramer

1980 – Airplane! (Robert Hays, Julie Hagerty)

Quote – And don’t call me Shirley

Comments –We go from 1979 from the scariest movie ever made to 1980 and the funniest movie ever made. Airplane was the first in a long series of movies with quick silly gags piled one after the other. It was the first and the best. As a note, 1980 also marked the year for two great sequels: The Empire Strikes Back and Superman II. They are not listed because of my rule that sequels of memorable movies aren’t eligible. This is probably a good moment to comment on why I set up that rule. I actually had Harry Potter primarily in mind. For eight years we had a Harry Potter movie almost every year. Clearly the Harry Potter franchise is highly memorable. It is the franchise as a whole that becomes part of our culture, however, more than the individual films. I did not want to debate which of the films was most memorable. I therefore set the rule that the after the first memorable movie, the sequels are not eligible. Therefore, while The Empire Strikes Back is the best of the Star Wars franchise, it is not eligible this year.

Best Picture – Ordinary People

1981 – Raiders of the Lost Ark

Quote – I hate Snakes! | Indiana Jones’ non Sword Fight

Comments – The year 1979 had the greatest horror/suspense film ever, 1980 had the greatest comedy, and 1981 had the greatest action adventure. Harrison Ford was perfect as Indiana Jones, and the movie provided more thrills per minute than any movie ever. Add the deft touch of humor and the magnificent soundtrack and you have an action adventure movie for the ages.

Honorable Mention – Arthur | Body Heat | Escape from New York | The Road Warrior

Best Picture – Chariots of Fire

1982 – E.T., the Extra Terrestrial (directed by Stephen Spielberg)

Quote – E.T. phone home.

Comments – Although 1982 had many memorable movies, I never had any doubt that E.T. would be my pick as most memorable movie of the year. This Stephen Spielberg classic is still loved over forty years later. For an example of how a movie effects the culture, in 1982 the St. Louis Cardinals had a rookie sensation named Willie McGee. McGee was a bit unusual looking and got the nickname E.T. McGee, a nickname he was not particularly fund of. In a playoff game against Atlanta, which I attended, McGee hit a long shot to right field. By the time McGee reached third base, the outfielder hadn’t even retrieved the ball. He could have crawled home. He just dusted himself off though and stayed on third base, oblivious of the shouts from his coach and the crowd to go home. After the game, the joke in St. Louis was “What is the difference between E.T. and Willie McGee?” E.T. went home. Willie McGee stayed at third.

As a side note, after my earlier siting of my rules against sequels, someone might notice that Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan is on my honorable mention list. To explain, my rule wasn’t against sequels, it was against the sequels of memorable movies. While 1979’s Star Trek: The Motion Picture might be considered memorable in the sense that it was the first Star Trek movie, the movie itself was so plodding, boring, and unmemorable that when they wrote Star Trek II and all other Star Trek sequels, the producers decided to act as if the first movie never existed, basically to create a time warp and wink it out of existence. If the Star Trek people themselves deemed that movie to be unmemorable, who am I to argue. Star Trek II therefore makes the list.

Best Picture – Gandhi

1983 – National Lampoon’s Vacation (Chevy Chase)

Quote – I don’t know why they call this stuff Hamburger Helper. It does fine by itself,

Comments – This year was a major drop off in terms of memorable movies following a string of great years. National Lampoon’s Vacation is a classic comedy that anybody who has made a cross country trek can identify with. As a sequel, Return of the Jedi is not eligible.

Honorable Mention – Flashdance | Risky Business | The Big Chill | Scarface

Best Picture – Terms of Endearment

1984 – The Terminator (Arnold Schwarzenegger)

Quote – I’ll be back.

Comments – The Terminator is classic both as science fiction and as action adventure. It made Schwarzenegger a mega-star. The underlying premise, which I won’t mention as it would spoil the movie if you haven’t seen it, is brilliant. This was of course followed by Terminator II which did tremendous box office and destroyed the brilliant premise of the first movie.

Best Picture – Amadeus

1985 – Back to the Future (Michael J. Fox)

Quote – Are you telling me that you built a time machine out of a DeLorean?

Comments – The DeLorean car would have long been forgotten if not for this movie. Michael J. Fox made this time travel movie a movie for all time. As a fun note, Back to the Future II went forward to 2015. Did you fly your car to work today?

Honorable Mention – The Color Purple | Cocoon | The Goonies | The Breakfast Club

Best Picture – Out of Africa

1986 – Top Gun (Tom Cruise)

Quote – I feel the need, the need for speed.

Comments – I love most of the memorable movies I discuss here. I didn’t particularly like Top Gun. Still, I have heard it referenced countless times over the years and I think it has had a bigger impact on American culture then two movies I liked much better, Crocodile Dundee and Little Shop of Horrors. Overall, 1986 was a very forgettable year when it comes to memorable movies.

Honorable Mention – Crocodile Dundee | Little Shop of Horror

Best Picture – Platoon

1987 – The Princess Bride (Cary Elwes, Robin Wright)

Quote – As you wish | Hello, my name is Inigo Montoya. You killed my father. Prepare to die.

Comments – My first thought was that Fatal Attraction would be the most memorable movie of 1987. That was before I realized that The Princess Bride came out in 1987. I will confess that The Princess Bride is my favorite movie of all time. It is a great action movie, a great comedy, and a great romance. I personally must have quoted from this movie at least ten thousand times. Could somebody else have quoted it more? Inconceivable.

Honorable Mention – Fatal Attraction |Good Morning, Vietnam |Lethal Weapon |Dirty Dancing | Wall Street

Best Picture – The Last Emperor

1988 – Big (Tom Hanks)

Non-Quote – Chopsticks on big piano at FAO Schwartz

Comments – One could make a good argument for any of the honorable mention films to be called the most memorable movie of 1988, but in my opinion, Big with Tom Hanks stands out just a bit from the others. This was not Tom Hanks first movie, but it is the movie that made him a major star.

Best Picture – Rain Man

1989 – When Harry Met Sally (Billy Crystal, Meg Ryan)

Non-Quote – I’ll have what she’s having.

Comments – This was a great year for memorable movies starting new trends. The Little Mermaid led Disney’s second golden age of animation. Batman started the trend of blockbuster, gritty superhero movies. When Harry Met Sally led a wave of modern romantic comedies. Any of these would be the most memorable movie in most years, but they all came out in 1989. When Harry Met Sally wins by a nose.

Best Picture – Driving Miss Daisy

1970-1989 – Star Wars

The Most Memorable Movies of All Time – Part 3: the 50s and 60s

Posted on March 7, 2015 by ralphkoppel

In a previous post, I identified what I thought was the most memorable movies of the 30s and 40s. Today I continue by looking at the movies of the 50s and 60s. In particular, I think it is interesting to compare the most memorable movies with the movie selected as the best picture of the year. At the end of this list I pick the most memorable movie of this time period. In my last segment, I will pick the most memorable movie of all time using the finalist from each time period. Of course, any list compilation is made to be disagreed with so I welcome other views on these movies.

To recap, here are the criteria for choosing the most memorable movie from each year:

Memorable movies become part of our culture. They may directly become part of our culture, showcase stars who become part of our culture, or launch a genre that becomes part of our culture.
Sequels of memorable movies are not eligible.

Based on comments I received after my last post, I added a lot more direct link to film clips. Every quote on this list is linked to the video of that quote. I also added a few more.

As an interesting note, in the 40 years I have examined so far, only three of the Academy Award winners made my list as the most memorable movie of the year. An additional nine made my honorable mention list. So 28 of the 40 Oscar winning movies during this period did not meet my criteria for being memorable.

1950 – Cinderella

Quotes – Bippity Boppity Boo

Comments – This Disney classic is still one of the best. While there have been many versions of Cinderella, this version is by the most famous. As far as an effect on our culture, how many times has a movie been called a Cinderella story? ironically, this includes the recently released Fifty Shades of Grey. In a personal note when our daughter was one to two years old, she must have watched Cinderella at least three hundred times. For some reason, she fixated on the villainous cat and whenever she wanted to watch it she asked for “Meow Cat.”

Honorable Mention – Annie Get Your Gun |Sunset Boulevard, Born Yesterday

Best Picture – All About Eve

1951 – A Streetcar Named Desire (Marlon Brando, Vivien Leigh)

Quotes – Hey Stella! | “I’ve always depended on the kindness of strangers,

Comments – This movie has amazing acting led by Marlon Brando, cementing his claim to stardom and women’s fantasies, and Vivien Leigh winning her second best actress award.

Honorable Mention – Alice in Wonderland, The African Queen, Strangers on a Train, The Day the Earth Stood Still

Best Picture -An American in Paris

1952 – Singin’ in the Rain (Gene Kelly, Debbie Reynolds, Donald O’Connor)

Quotes – I’m Singin’ in the Rain

Comments – Over sixty years later, Gene Kelly’s title masterpiece is still arguably the most famous one person song and dance routine ever. Interestingly, only two songs, Make ‘Em Laugh and Moses, were original to this movie. All of the other songs, including the title tune, had been used elsewhere before.

Honorable Mention – High Noon

Best Picture -The Greatest Show On Earth

1953 – Peter Pan

Quotes – You can fly! You can fly! You can fly!

Comments – Once again a Disney animated film is the most remembered. The Peter Pan ride still has the longest lines in the Magic Kingdom. One can debate whether the book, the Disney movie, or the play originally starring Mary Martin had the biggest role in embedding Peter Pan as a fixture in our culture and in our cabinets:

Best Picture -From Here to Eternity

1954 – White Christmas (Bing Crosby, Danny Kaye)

Quotes – I’m Dreaming of a White Christmas.

Comments – Bing Crosby’s rendition of Irving Berlin’s classic title song remains a favorite and is forever associated with this movie, but most people don’t know (including me until now) that it Crosby first sang it in the 1942 movie Holiday Inn.

Best Picture – On the Waterfront

1955 – Oklahoma (Gordon MacRae, Shirley Jones)

Quotes – Oklahoma where the wind comes sweepin down the plain!

Comments -This was Rogers & Hammerstein’s first big hit. Every high school has performed its since then at least twenty times.

Honorable Mention – East of Eden

Best Picture – Marty

1956 – The Ten Commandments (Charlton Heston)

Quotes – Behold his mighty hand!

Comments -This movie defines the biblical epic. Charlton Heston is and will always be Moses.

Best Picture – Around the World in 80 Days

1957 – An Affair to Remember (Cary Grant, Deborah Kerr)

Quotes – See comments.

Comments -I will confess that I have never seen this movie. I have, however, heard quite a bit about it, particularly the planned meeting on the roof of the Empire State Building but I personally am not aware of any famous quotes from the movie. Nevertheless, I have heard so many women say they have watched it many times and cried every time. The movie Sleepless in Seattle paid reverence to An Affair to Remember. I seriously considered naming Old Yeller as the most memorable movie of the year. Together these movies made 1957 the weepiest year in movie history.

Honorable Mention – The Bridge on the River Kwai |Gunfight at the OK Corral | Old Yeller

Best Picture – The Bridge on the River Kwai

1958 – The Seventh Voyage of Sinbad (special effects by Ray Harryhausen)

Non -Quote – Ray Harryhausen’s monsters

Comments This was a tough year to pick a winner. There were a lot of memorable movies, but there wasn’t one that greatly stood out from the rest. I finally decided on the Seventh Voyage of Sinbad. It was one of my favorite movies as a kid. I couldn’t tell you any of the actors and until I saw this clip I couldn’t quote a single line from this movie. But I remembered the monsters and the special effects. Ray Harryhausen was the master of special effects for that era. Incidentally, almost fifty years later, Universal Studios Islands of Adventure now has an Eigth Voyage of Sinbad stunt show.

Best Picture – Gigi

1959 – Some Like it Hot (Jack Lemmon, Tony Curtis, Marilyn Monroe)

Quotes – Well, nobody’s perfect.

Comments – In 2000, the American Film Institute named Some Like It Hot the funniest American movie of all time. Its comic device of having men hide out pretending to be women has often been duplicated but never been equaled. This was was a great year for memorable movies. I was strongly tempted to choose Plan 9 from Outer Space by being memorable for being what many people call the worst movie ever made.

Best Picture – Ben-Hur

1960 – Psycho (Anthony Perkins)

Non-Quote – The Shower Scene

Comments – Alfred Hitchcock made many memorable movies but Psycho is by far the movie that is most embedded in the American culture. The new TV series, The Bates Motel will be starting its third season next week. Alfred Hitchcock

Honorable Mention – Spartacus |The Little Shop of Horrors | The Magnificent Seven

Best Picture – The Apartment

1961 – West Side Story (Natalie Wood)

Quote – I just met a girl named Maria.

Comments – Great music, great choreogropy, and an emotion-wrenching modern retelling of Romeo and Juliet made West Side story a classic.

Honorable Mention – The Parent Trap | One Hundred and One Dalmations | Breakfast at Tiffany’s

Best Picture – West Side Story

1962 – To Kill a Mockingbird (Gregory Peck)

Quote – You never really understand a person until you consider things from his point of view … until you climb into his skin and walk around in it.

Comments – After 1939, 1962 ranks as the second best year for memorable movies in my research so far. Lawrence of Arabia, The Music Man, The Miracle Worker, and Dr. No all would have been the most memorable movie of any other year. The American Film Institute ranked Gregory Peck’s Atticus Finch as the greatest movie hero of all time. I and almost every other school child in America saw To Kill a Mockingbird as part of our education. It is the one lesson in school that nobody ever forgets.

Best Picture – Lawrence of Arabia

1963 – The Pink Panther (Peter Sellers)

Non-Quote – The character Inspector Clouseau

Comments – The year 1963 made me question my self-imposed rule against sequels. From Russia with Love was the second James Bond movie. The first James Bond movie, Dr. No, came out in 1962 and it would have ranked as the most memorable in almost any year that didn’t have To Kill a Mockingbird, and I was sorely tempted to rank it as the most memorable movie of the year in compensation. At the same time, The Pink Panther first establishes Peter Sellers in the unforgettable role of Inspector Clouseau, but the character didn’t reach his zenith until later films such as A Shot in the Dark in 1964 and The Return of The Pink Panther in 1975. The best Clouseau quotes and scenes were all from later films.

The reason I set this rule in the beginning is that so, for example, we didn’t have eight years in a row of Harry Potter movies on the list. I finally decided, however, that my original rule was a good one. The original movie is what begins the memory. Later installments may surpass the original, but the original is the key, and it should “compete” in its own year. A sequel shouldn’t be recognized as a consolation prize.

Honorable Mention – It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World, The Nutty Professor, The Great Escape

Best Picture – Tom Jones

1964 – Mary Poppins (Julie Andrews, Dick Van Dyke)

Quote – Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious

Comments – Mary Poppins is without any close competition the favorite movie of my childhood. The story was literally and figuratively magical, the music was captivating, and the insertion of live characters into animated sequences was groundbreaking.

Honorable Mention – My Fair Lady | A Fistful of Dollars | The Unsinkable Molly Brown | Dr. Strangelove

Best Picture – My Fair Lady

1965 – The Sound of Music (Julie Andrews, Christopher Plummer)

Quote – The hills are alive with the sound of music.

Comments – Picking the Sound of Music as the most memorable movie of 1965 is as simple as do re mi. For the last fifty years, I doubt any music teacher has ever had to teach an American child what the names of the seven notes are.

Honorable Mention – Dr. Zhivago

Best Picture – The Sound of Music

1966 – Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf (Elizabeth Taylor, Richard Burton)

Quote – What a Dump!

Comments – The poet Virginia Woolf gained far more fame from being referenced in this play and movie title than she ever got from her poetry.

Honorable Mention -none

Best Picture – A Man for all Seasons

1967 – The Graduate (Dustin Hoffman, Anne Bancroft)

Quote – Mrs. Robinson, you’re trying to seduce me? | Plastics

Comments – While 1966 had a paucity of memorable films, 1967 was quite a memorable year in cinema with numerous films that made an impact. Among these, Mike Nichols’ The Graduate stands out, from the soundtrack by Simon and Garfunkle, the witty script, and Dustin Hoffman’s brilliant acting.

Best Picture – In the Heat of the Night

1968 – Planet of the Apes

Quote – We finally really did it. You Maniacs! You blew it up! Ah, damn you! God damn you all to hell! | Take your stinking paws off me, you damned dirty ape!

Comments – 1968 was another great year for movies. It illustrates perfectly too the difference between a wonderful movie and a memorable movie. Oliver won the Academy award for best movie of 1968. Personally, I love Oliver. It has a classic story and a delightful musical score. To me, personally, it is a very memorable movie. It didn’t last though. I would have guessed at the time that the song Consider Yourself would become a classic. It didn’t. The movie didn’t stay as part of the American culture. The memorable line, “Please sir, may I have some more?” can be attributed more to the book than to the movie.

In contrast, Planet of the Apes is part of our culture. The surprise ending at the statue of liberty is classic. It spawned numerous sequels with a reboot in 2001. This last year, In 2014, Dawn of the Planet of the Apes was one of the most popular movies of the year. In fact, all of the honorable mention movies have had a greater impact on our culture than Oliver.

Best Picture – Oliver!

1969 – Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid

Quote – Kid: I can’t swim. Butch: Are you crazy? The fall will probably kill you.

Comments – Redford and Newman were one of the great teams in movie history. This movie made them legendary together.

Honorable Mention – Easy Rider | True Grit

Best Picture – Midnight Cowboy

1950-1969 – The Sound of Music

Top Ten Bad Assumptions: 7 – Judge a policy based on its benefits.

Posted on March 2, 2015 by ralphkoppel

Alternate Assumption: Judge a policy based on its benefits and its costs.

This is probably the bad assumption that we see the most. Policy A helps people. Therefore Policy A must be good. If anyone opposes Policy A, that must mean that they don’t want to help people. This bad assumption usually involves government spending, but it doesn’t have to. It also applies to both sides of the political spectrum. A “Jobs bill” might hurt the environment or a “Clean Air” bill might cost jobs.

Generally, any policy has both costs and benefits. The costs frequently involve spending money, but there can be other costs as well. For example, raising the minimum wage might reduce the number of minimum wage jobs. One can debate whether the benefit justifies the cost, but too frequently there is no debate as people only look at the benefit.

The debate on global warming provides a good illustration for this. Recently Bill O’Reilly said something to the effect that even if global warming claims are exaggerated, it can’t hurt removing pollutants from the air. It certainly can hurt. We each can drastically reduce our carbon footprint. All we need to do is to stop driving and stop using electricity produced by coal-fired power plants. Is it worth is? If the threat is dire enough, yes it is. If the threat is remote and speculative, then it probably isn’t. We need to compare the benefits of reducing the carbon emissions to the cost of doing so. Is it worth giving up driving? Is it worth losing the millions of jobs we would surely lose if there was no more driving? You decide.

Right now the national debt is approximately $17 trillion. Of this, $7 trillion has been accumulated in the last six years under Obama. This should alarm both conservatives and liberals. Let’s say you are a devout liberal and you believe that government has the obligation to help the needy. There is a new proposal to spend $50 billion on anti-poverty programs. The question you typically ask is does this program provide real help to people who need help. Let’s assume the answer is yes. As a result, you support this bill.

I suggest that you are asking the wrong question. The question you should ask is does this program provide enough help to justify borrowing the money from China that one day our children and grandchildren will have to repay. Moreover, since you believe that government should help the needy, does it provide enough help to the needy today to justify the fact that there won’t be any money available for government to help the needy in future generations?

We can’t just look at the benefits. We need to look at the benefits and the costs.

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