If you could be a policy expert in any one area, which one would it be?

[Cant trust em]

I'm really interested in economic development. What kind of jobs do we need and how do we create a workforce that is able to fill them. Building a collaboration between this sphere and education is what I think is going to drive our economic productivity for the 21st century.

[FSogol]

1. I'm already an expert on beer and comic books but the phone never rings. n/t

[Skink]

2. what's with the skyrocketing beer prices?

and why aren't there ever beer coupons?

[FSogol]

3. Global warming is ruining hops and more farmers are growing

corn for use in corn-ethanol. As for beer coupons, that is illegal, mostly due to state regulations. ;-)

[jtuck004]

6. Washington State just signed off on a beer tax, a bottled water tax,

a cigarette tax, and a tax on candy - to balance the state budget.

Course they exempted the local brews that the snobs and people with higher incomes drink, just taxed the ones the working folk pick up on the way home or for the weekend. Maybe it's because they don't have so much work any more.

[TransitJohn]

4. Sustainable community power and energy.

Developing site tailored sustainable power delivery systems on a community scale. Also community sustainable food production.

[jtuck004]

5. Creating wealth ain't gonna come from service jobs like health care.

China is on their way to a lead in solar and renewable engergies - Applied Materials is building the largest plant ever for solar panels in Xi'an.
The Chinese are going to be reducing their independence on oil and coal, and selling us solar technologies soon. We are not going to like the results, so that might be one area.

Our economy is pretty energy intensive, but we are running out of oil, and coal is never going to be clean. Maybe Nuclear engineering?

Agriculture is going to rear it's head one of these years. We could redo the way we treat agriculture, bust up the monopolies, and return to more small farms and local spending - would help our local economies tremendously.

Finance has taken over a huge percentage of GDP, but taking money off the top while not providing the investment in this country that they used to. On the other hand China, Brazil, India, and Russia have new consumers coming on line all the time. When you read the reports of increases in corporate profits you may note that that is coming from sales outside of this country, while sales here are still weak. Until we re-employ about 20+ million people it is very likely to remain like that, or worse. So, if we don't change, perhaps "finance" would be a good field, since our employment picture looks very bad for at least a decade, maybe longer. And perhaps they could study ways to refocus finance on building this country, not just short-term profit.

Commercial aircraft and weapons are still strong suits for us. I wonder what we could get back if we really tried.

Oh yeah, and we need to re-educate people so they understand how to spend in their own best interests.

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

7. Napping is an area in which I feel expert.

Hell, I even got good at it on the job where it wasn't a requirement.

[Cant trust em]

9. I have a PhD in napology.

I have years of experience in the field.

[slackmaster]

8. If I had it to do all over again, I think I'd specialize in Mariculture

Because I like seafood so much. I think more and more people will turn to seafoods as more healthful sources of protein than red meats.

[woo me with science]

10. Well, it's not being a "policy expert," but I wish I had a background in Constitutional law...

It would be nice for all the arguments about Constitutionality on this site...

[jtuck004]

11. Transportation also comes to mind - fossil fuels are going to get really

expensive one of these days, and people still want to move. Maybe Algae fuels? Electric cars (need better capacitors)? Nuclear Cars? Trucks, trains,.

Community planning may become more desireable.