Q: Does a term exist for? Is there a single word, or short phrase that denotes the following concept?
'The longer the problem exists the more severe/distasteful the solution must be'
eg. Because we did not choose to act earlier, we are forced to act now with even greater collateral/consequences than would have been.

A: You may use


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The Sooner The Easier

or more generally:


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The Sooner The Better


A: Consider,
Desperate diseases must have desperate remedies
OR
Desperate times call for desperate measures - (McGraw-Hill Dictionary Of American idioms and phrasal verbs)
Prov. if you have an insurmountable problem, you must do things you ordinarily would not do in order to solve it, but if you don't tackle this problem right away, it might get worse as time goes by.
