policy short-sightedness

"The fallacy of overlooking secondary consequences ... is the persistent tendency of man to see only the immediate effects of a given policy, or its effects only on a special group, and to neglect to inquire what the long-run effects of that policy will be not only on that special group but on all groups."
-- Henry Hazlitt, Economics in one Lesson (1946)

this time

Looking back on my life,
you know that all I see
are things I could have changed,
I could have done.
Where did the good times go?
Good times so hard to hold.
No time for sad lament;
a wasted life is bitter spent.
--Richard Ashcroft (The Verve) 1997

find your way back

I know its too late now,
But I wish I could go back in time
And start all over somehow
And get it right from the start.
-- Craig Chaquico (Jefferson Starship) 1981