Significance: Why is this work important?
This book is important for a number of factors. Most prominent of these is the ability of this book to act as an allegory for our current situation. With so much hysteria regarding the war and our economy, people are worried that United States as a society may crumble. This book serves as a reminder of the cost of ignorance. Without knowledge, people fail to make the correct decisions, leading to devastating consequences. For example, the housing market is failing because of bad decisions by both lenders and borrowers. Long term gain was superceded by short sighted choices. While people gained in the short term, they felt the pain in the long run!
The City of Ember is similar in that they are not SOLVING problems. They are merely maintaining a system that is already broken. Eventually, the City will collapse and so to will the people. The United States is taking a similar approach. We are not leaving problem solving to future generations. Take for example our dependence on foreign oil. Eventually, that resource will be completely depleted. What will we do then? Since the oil supply is steady for the time being (short run) we are not concerned about what will happen in the future.
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