What is/are the US's biggest problems today?

[raccoon]

I was thinking about it this morning, and here's what I think:

--Lack of decent-paying jobs.

--Lack of a national health plan.

--Lack of social cohesion. (What I mean here is, the population is so divided.)


There are other problems too, but IMO these are the biggest.

[KharmaTrain]

1. Communications...

In this "wired" society, fewer and fewer people listen. They take positions and never can consider another's perspective. As long as our nation...not just our politicians can't communicate, the country remains dysfunctional.

[cdsilv]

2. Runaway greed of the 'wealthy' class with no sense of acceptance of responsibility.....

and thinking that they 'deserve' their wealth....

[appamado amata padam]

3. ignorance, hatred, lots & lots of violence

[AngryAmish]

4. Giant radioactive dinosaurs appearing out of the sea and smashing the cities

Oh, shit, no, that is Japan...

[endless october]

6. lol

[endless october]

5. outsourcing.

that's the biggest one. any corporation can just close operations here and pay slave wages in some other part of the world. and they can pollute there as much as they want.

dropping tariffs was a big mistake. and anyone who thinks China is going to do anything about CO2 emissions is smoking some good shit. China would love it if we signed onto a global CO2 treaty. the boost to their own manufacturing would be significant.

we have to make stuff here in the states if we want a middle class. it's as simple as that.

and i agree that we need a national health care plan.

[Obamanaut]

7. Weasels in congress with job security because we reelect them

endlessly - and that they know that we will regardless of low approval ratings.

[old mark]

8. 1. "bought-and-paid-for" congress,

2. Religious influence in society and government.
3. Dumbed-down education system.
4. Apathetic people.

mark

[BuyingThyme]

9. Republicans.

[Bgno64]

17. Agreed. Wingers.

Because wingers prevent all the other problems from being solved.

[seabeyond]

10. livable wage and available jobs. hm.... kinda exactly my concern with clinton

and nafta

[T Wolf]

11. The very presence of repukes. They fuck up everything they touch, and most of what they don't.

Remove them from the country and we would be well on the way to a real Democracy.

And, maybe if there were no rethugs around, the DINOs and Blue Dogs would act like Democrats.

[Rosa Luxemburg]

12. Corporate greed

[Overseas]

26. And Corporate Personhood. Corporate control of the legislative process.

http://www.reclaimdemocracy.org/

[and-justice-for-all]

13. Repukes and their followers...nt

[Historic NY]

14. "the poor get poorer & the rich get richer" .

[The_Commonist]

15. Television.

It's rotted people's brains now for 2 generations, and we have lost the ability to think.
We are headed for a true Idiocracy, and it's because of our culture's need for constant entertainment.
Very few people find educating themselves to be "entertaining" anymore, and the culture has been dumbed down to a frightening degree.
Of course, there are a few people at the top of the societal pyramid who want it this way, because dumb people are more easily controlled. Television is the main tool they have used for the past 50 years to dumbify us...

[QC]

16. Corporate domination of the politics and culture.

That's the foundation from which all of our other, more apparent, problems spring.

[Altoid_Cyclist]

18. Our priorities are screwed up big time.

When I say our priorities, I mean the US as a whole and not people here.

Billions of $$$$ for war profiteers that could be used for health care among other things.

Pro athletes and celebrities making tens of millions of dollars a year while people are living under bridges or in cardboard boxes.

People treating diversity as though it's some kind of contagious disease instead of embracing new ideas and cultures.

Rewarding criminals such as Tom Delay instead of throwing him in prison along with most of ****'s underlings.

Insurance companies letting people die instead of helping them to live.

There are more, but there were already a lot of dead-on posts before mine.

Good thought provoking post by the way.

[olegramps]

19. Republicans!

Eliminate them and you would have instant sanity.

[ThatsMyBarack]

20. Teevee.

Too many cookie cutter reality shows on every damn channel!

(Yeah, I know--I need to get out more. ;))

[Okie4Obama]

21. Pride in ignorance with a lack of intellectual curiosity

It is the root cause that is causing us to fall backwards into being a rich version of a third world country.

[scheming daemons]

22. Corporate Personhood. It all comes back to that.

All of the other problems go away if we get rid of that silly legal construct.

[Subdivisions]

23. Declining oil production. n/t

[pampango]

24. Progressive taxation. It discourages anti-worker business practices.

Progressive taxation is not only fairer, but provides the government with the funds to provide things like health care and fixing the safety net.

Also, it reduces the incentive that corporations and businesses have to squeeze out every last dollar of profit, since they won't get to keep much of it anyway. If my business has to pay $.80 of every extra $1 of profit in taxes, I'm going to focus more on keeping my employees and customers happy in the long run. Now union busting, outsourcing, and other practices are encouraged by the tax system, since low marginal tax rates encourage companies to try to squeeze every last dollar of profit, most of which they get to keep.

[L0oniX]

25. Stupidity and republicans ...but then I repeat myself.