What are the US's biggest problems and how do we fix them

[Wesley Clark]

Jesus minus 191 other countries on earth = USA!

Either way, with all the despondency I think it is time for some hope building. And what better way than a bunch of quasi-anonymous hobbyists on the internet doing a thought exercise.

So what are the huge problems in the US, and what can be done to fix them? It seems some of our problems are unique, while some are shared with the rest of the world. Climate change and peak oil are huge global problems, but the trade deficit and decaying infrastructure are US problems. Some of the problems facing China like environmentalism are not as big here.


* Entitlement crisis due to medicare and social security will top 70 trillion over the next century
* We have a trade deficit
* We are losing our scientific edge globally (due to the rising of other nations, which isn't bad overall, but we are losing our competitiveness in R&D)
* We are going to hit peak oil
* Climate change is happening
* We are facing state and federal budget deficits
* Health care is unaffordable and will keep becoming more and more
* The world is facing natural resource shortages (not limited to oil)
* Consumer debt is extremely high
* Our society is plutocratic
* Our infrastructure is falling apart
* The events of 9/11 and Iraq have destroyed morale
* People on both ends of the political spectrum feel ignored in mainstream politics (liberals and teabaggers)
* Many people do not have enough for retirement


So with all these problems going on at once, which brown people should be bomb to distract us and fill ourselves with pride?

[Chief Pedant]

From your list, it would appear that either 38 million people have made a terrible blunder lately, or we suck less (or perhaps they came here to escape the bombing?).

I think we suck less, and I take hope in that. :)

[Chen019]

So what are the huge problems in the US, and what can be done to fix them?

Here's one:

But the influx has instead been composed mainly of the poorly educated, the unskilled, and the illiterate. Such immigrants will likely soon dominate the state's overall population and politics.

In 2005, the California K12 school system was 48.5 percent Hispanic, compared with 30.9 percent white. By now it is above 50 percent Hispanic. Two-thirds of kindergarten students were Hispanic, most of them unable to speak English.
For a closer glimpse of what's in store for California, look at the Los Angeles Unified School District, the largest in California and the second largest in the country. Of its roughly 700,000 students, almost three-quarters are Hispanic, 8.9 percent are white, and 11.2 percent are black. More than half of the Latino students (about 300,000) are "English learners" and, depending on whether you believe the district or independent scholars, anywhere between a third and a half drop out of high school, following significant attrition in middle school. A recent study by UC Santa Barbara's California Dropout Research Project estimates that high-school dropouts in 2007 alone will cost the state $24.2 billion in future economic losses.

Even those who graduate aren't necessarily headed to success. According to one study, 69 percent of Latino high-school graduates "do not meet college requirements or satisfy prerequisites for most jobs that pay a living wage." It is difficult to see how the majority-Hispanic labor force of the future can provide the skills that the sophisticated Los Angeles economy demands. Already studies show that as many as 700,000 Los Angeles Latinos and some 65 percent of the city's illegal immigrants work in L.A.'s huge underground economy.

The unhappy picture in Los Angeles is replicated to one degree or another across much of California and is taking a huge toll on the state's economic competitiveness and long-term prospects. California's educational system, once easily the best in the country, is today mired in mediocrity near the bottom among the 50 states as judged by National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) tests in math, science, reading, and writing. And for the first time in its history, California is experiencing an increase in adult illiteracy. In 2003, it had the highest adult illiteracy in the United States, 23 percent nearly 50 percent higher than a decade earlier. In some counties (Imperial at 41 percent, Los Angeles at 33 percent) illiteracy approaches sub-Saharan levels.

....

One myth is that because America is a country of immigrants and has successfully absorbed waves of immigration in the past, it can absorb this wave. But the argument neglects two key differences between past waves and the current influx. First, the immigrant population is more than double today what it was following the most massive previous immigration wave (that of the late 19th century). Second, and much more important, as scholars from the Manhattan Institute have shown, earlier immigrants were much more likely to bring with them useful skills. Some Hispanic immigrants certainly do integrate, but most do not. Research has shown that even after 20 years in the country, most illegal aliens (the overwhelming majority of whom are Hispanic) and their children remain poor, unskilled, and culturally isolated they constitute a new permanent underclass.

Perhaps the most disingenuous myth about illegal immigrants is that they do not impose any cost on society. The reality is that even those who work and half do not, according to the Pew Hispanic Center cannot subsist on the wages they receive and depend on public assistance to a large degree. Research on Los Angeles immigrants by Harvard University scholar George J. Borjas shows that 40.1 percent of immigrant families with non-citizen heads of household receive welfare, compared with 12.7 percent of households with native-born heads. Illegal immigrants also increase public expenditures on health care, education, and prisons. In California today, illegal immigrants' cost to the taxpayer is estimated to be $13 billion half the state's budget deficit.

The state should stop providing welfare and other social services to illegal aliens as existing statutes demand and severely punish employers who break the law by hiring illegal immigrants. This would immediately remove powerful economic incentives for illegal immigration, and millions of illegal aliens would return to their countries. Instead, with President Obama in the White House and the Democrats controlling Congress, an amnesty for the country's 13 million illegal immigrants may be soon to come.

Milton Friedman once said that unrestrained immigration and the welfare state do not mix. Must we wait until California catches up with Mexico to realize how right he was?



http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=112167023

[FinnAgain]

We have a fairly sizable population that is hungry, and a fairly sizable population that is poor, and...

[begbert2]

We have a fairly sizable population that is hungry, and a fairly sizable population that is poor, and...Heck, the whole problem is the population. If we had no population, we would have no problems - none at all! We seriously need to get working on this.

[XT]

The lack of personal jet packs and flying cars. If only we had jet packs and flying cars then all our problems would be solved!

-XT

[Desert Nomad]

We've become a nation of warmongers. Quit trying to police the world while supporting both democracy and dictators. Scrap the war machine, return most of the money to the people and spend the rest improving our infrastructure and health care systems.

[Chen019]

Also the delusional idea that there needs to be equality of results for all groups. It is leading to craziness like this:



NBCDFW.com The Chicago Police Department is seriously considering scrapping the police entrance exam, sources tell Fran Spielman.

Dropping the exam would bolster minority hiring and avert legal battles, according to one source, while others confirm that the exam could be scrapped to open the process to as many people as possible.

However, the lack of an exam would make Chicago the lone major city without one, and experts contend that the exam is integral to eliminating unqualified applicants.



http://www.nbcchicago.com/news/local-beat/chicago-police-scrap-entrance-exam-80790827.html

[Argent Towers]

So with all these problems going on at once, which brown people should be bomb to distract us and fill ourselves with pride?

I'm so fucking sick of this "brown people" meme. As in, "we're killing brown people on the other side of the world for oil" or whatever; I heard it repeated ad infinitum in a million different variations ever since the wars in the Middle East started. What the hell is the point of bringing up their race like that? I know it is always used ironically, by liberal hipsters, as if it is coming from the mouth of some big fat truck-driving Confederate-flag brute, not actually representing the genuine thoughts of the person saying it - but it still annoys the hell out of me.

[begbert2]

I'm so fucking sick of this "brown people" meme. As in, "we're killing brown people on the other side of the world for oil" or whatever; I heard it repeated ad infinitum in a million different variations ever since the wars in the Middle East started. What the hell is the point of bringing up their race like that? I know it is always used ironically, by liberal hipsters, as if it is coming from the mouth of some big fat truck-driving Confederate-flag brute, not actually representing the genuine thoughts of the person saying it - but it still annoys the hell out of me.The people who actually might say this wouldn't say "brown people" - that is way too PC.

But really the princible being expressed here is isolationism/apathy about others, or more accurately the liberals are expressing scorn for isolationism/apathy about others. That they can spice it up with implied racism is just a bonus.

[Wesley Clark]

The people who actually might say this wouldn't say "brown people" - that is way too PC.

But really the princible being expressed here is isolationism/apathy about others, or more accurately the liberals are expressing scorn for isolationism/apathy about others. That they can spice it up with implied racism is just a bonus.

You forgot the religious aspect, I threw in some phony religious extremism in my OP too.

[Bryan Ekers]

Heck, the whole problem is the population. If we had no population, we would have no problems - none at all! We seriously need to get working on this.

Damn right. The biggest problem is abortion, not enough of.

[John Mace]

So with all these problems going on at once, which brown people should be bomb to distract us and fill ourselves with pride?

I say bomb them all. That way we can be sure we got the right ones.

[Uzi]

* We are going to hit peak oil

* The world is facing natural resource shortages (not limited to oil)

Peak oil? As prices rise alternative ways of making oil become competitive to traditional methods.

Which other natural resources are we facing shortages on?

[athelas]

Quit invading the world, quit inviting the world.

(Less succinctly, get harsher on illegals and make it easier for high-skilled immigrants to get in. Currently we're doing the reverse.)I'm so fucking sick of this "brown people" meme. As in, "we're killing brown people on the other side of the world for oil" or whatever; I heard it repeated ad infinitum in a million different variations ever since the wars in the Middle East started. What the hell is the point of bringing up their race like that? I know it is always used ironically, by liberal hipsters, as if it is coming from the mouth of some big fat truck-driving Confederate-flag brute, not actually representing the genuine thoughts of the person saying it - but it still annoys the hell out of me.Why be right when you can be smug and unanswerable?

[Der Trihs]

I'm so fucking sick of this "brown people" meme. As in, "we're killing brown people on the other side of the world for oil" or whatever; I heard it repeated ad infinitum in a million different variations ever since the wars in the Middle East started. What the hell is the point of bringing up their race like that? It helps underline how little we've changed. America is still heavily racist.

I know it is always used ironically, by liberal hipsters, as if it is coming from the mouth of some big fat truck-driving Confederate-flag brute, not actually representing the genuine thoughts of the person saying it - but it still annoys the hell out of me.Well, too bad. The brown people we love to mass murder feel worse about being killed than you do about the killing being commented on, I assure you.

[athelas]

It helps underline how little we've changed. America is still heavily racist.Imputation's cheaper than argument.

[Chen019]

It helps underline how little we've changed. America is still heavily racist.


Sometimes violently so:

The Denver Police Department announced today that they have made 32 arrests during a sweep to end a four-month spree of what police said were racially motivated assaults and robberies in downtown Denver, including the LoDo entertainment district.

A task force comprised of the Denver Police, FBI and the Denver District Attorney’s Office investigated 26 incidents in which groups of black males verbally harassed and then assaulted white or Hispanic males, according to Denver Police Chief Gerry Whitman.

Many of the victims were robbed after being assaulted.


http://www.denverpost.com/ci_13835315

Troy Knapp's killing was 10 years in the making, a gradual death by inches and degrees.

His brutal beating at the hands of an angry mob sparked outrage and spurred marches a decade ago. But long after the headlines faded, Knapp soldiered on in a battered and broken body that no longer responded to his commands.


http://www.postandcourier.com/news/2010/jan/03/they-beat-him-to-death-he-just-didnt-die/

[Wesley Clark]

Peak oil? As prices rise alternative ways of making oil become competitive to traditional methods.

Which other natural resources are we facing shortages on?

The Hirsch report claims it'll take 2 decades of a 'crash program' to overcome a shortage of liquid fuels.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hirsch_report#Three_scenarios

Three scenarios

Waiting until world oil production peaks before taking crash program action leaves the world with a significant liquid fuel deficit for more than two decades.

Initiating a mitigation crash program 10 years before world oil peaking helps considerably but still leaves a liquid fuels shortfall roughly a decade after the time that oil would have peaked.

Initiating a mitigation crash program 20 years before peaking appears to offer the possibility of avoiding a world liquid fuels shortfall for the forecast period.









We will be facing shortages of various raw materials. However alternatives, better recycling and better extraction should help.

http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=530792&highlight=shortage

[Cat Whisperer]

In my opinion, the worst problem facing the US right now is the lobbying system. You can't fix *anything* else until you fix that, and you can't fix the lobbying system because the lobbyists and the corporations/powerful people they represent won't let you. You're basically screwed.

[Wesley Clark]

In my opinion, the worst problem facing the US right now is the lobbying system. You can't fix *anything* else until you fix that, and you can't fix the lobbying system because the lobbyists and the corporations/powerful people they represent won't let you. You're basically screwed.

I agree. We are a plutocracy now.

It would cost about 1 billion a year to have publicly funded federal elections, but it would save far far more than that by cutting corporate welfare.

http://www.citizen.org/prezview/articles.cfm?ID=16835

But like you said, what can you do? The people with the power don't want to give it up.

[marshmallow]

A declining economy and an everlasting wish to control the world despite the lack of an ability to do so.

Says the great IOZ:


Our broke-ass empire will keep chugging along, graying and groaning into Soviet decrepitude, until at last, poof, we sell off the commemorative rubble and find twentysomething hipsters in Shanghai wearing American flags as statements of ironic nostalgia.

[erislover]

US's biggest problems, IMO, are lack of education and the predominance of religion. These are not unrelated in my view, either. I am completely unaware what can be done about it. All other problems are related to one of these two. I don't wish to abolish religion, and I do not believe everyone requires even a high school education, but if I could magically make it so, I would remove all religion and ensure everyone has a high school education. Two wishes from a genie in a bottle. The third would probably be something terribly selfish and personal.

I know that seems kind of dismissive of discussion, but "what could be done" about education is very hard to answer in any other way. We could reduce military spending and put it towards education, as a first approximation. We could loosen immigration laws to stop creating an underclass of illegals. These two things would work together to reduce the population of unskilled laborers (I am not asserting all illegals are unskilled). We could end the war on drugs and expand programs attempting to integrate immigrants. If people want to come to this country to get an education and find work, well, those are exactly the sort of people I want in my country. If you don't want to work and don't want an education for yourself or your family, I don't want you here, natural born citizen or not.

But this is no further from the genie in the bottle, because how are we going to reallocate resources this way? If people wanted to, we'd already be doing it. I continue to argue (mostly IRL) against tough immigration laws and against the war on drugs and for lowering barriers to education. Basically, it's all I've got until I find a genie in a bottle.

[magellan01]

US's biggest problems, IMO, are lack of education and the predominance of religion. These are not unrelated in my view, either. I am completely unaware what can be done about it. All other problems are related to one of these two. I don't wish to abolish religion, and I do not believe everyone requires even a high school education, but if I could magically make it so, I would remove all religion and ensure everyone has a high school education.

If you are so interested in education, you might want to increase the predominance of religion. As catholic schools perform better, on average than public.

I know that seems kind of dismissive of discussion, but "what could be done" about education is very hard to answer in any other way. We could reduce military spending and put it towards education, as a first approximation.

And that might be a good idea if more money were the answer. It's not. There are districts that spend an incredible amount of money that perform abysmally. (See '"The Kansas City Experiment".) There are others that spend much less and re stellar. No, money ain't the problem. I wish it were. THAT would be easy to fix.

We could loosen immigration laws to stop creating an underclass of illegals. These two things would work together to reduce the population of unskilled laborersy(I am not asserting all illegals are unskilled). We could end the war on drugs and expand programs attempting to integrate immigrants. If people want to come to this country to get an education and find work, well, those are exactly the sort of people I want in my country. If you don't want to work and don't want an education for yourself or your family, I don't want you here, natural born citizen or not.

So, you'd like to make it easier for illegals and increase legal immigration while we have a 10% unemployment rate. Interesting. Don't you think our efforts should help those people first? Then if we need more people, open the spigot.

[erislover]

If you are so interested in education, you might want to increase the predominance of religion. As catholic schools perform better, on average than public.If you can demonstrate that this is because they are catholic then I will happily reconsider and learn something amazing in the process. I believe that the hypothesis, otherwise, would be that there is something other than religion at work.
And that might be a good idea if more money were the answer. It's not. There are districts that spend an incredible amount of money that perform abysmally. (See '"The Kansas City Experiment".) There are others that spend much less and re stellar. No, money ain't the problem. I wish it were. THAT would be easy to fix.Well, like I said, my primary recourse is the genie in the bottle. I wasn't joking, unfortunately! Also, it seems that the evidence provided by the case you mention is not conclusive, as I see it. For one, the method of increasing funding was quite haphazard. Still, I was not aware of this case and thank you for the reference, about which I will have to read more.
So, you'd like to make it easier for illegals and increase legal immigration while we have a 10% unemployment rate. Interesting. Don't you think our efforts should help those people first? Then if we need more people, open the spigot.Increasing immigration will always increase unemployment, for reasons that I assume are obvious. I believe people and business should be free to relocate around the world to places of their liking. Relocation already has large costs associated with it; I do not see the pressing need to make it worse by government fiat.

[villa]

I'm so fucking sick of this "brown people" meme. As in, "we're killing brown people on the other side of the world for oil" or whatever; I heard it repeated ad infinitum in a million different variations ever since the wars in the Middle East started. What the hell is the point of bringing up their race like that? I know it is always used ironically, by liberal hipsters, as if it is coming from the mouth of some big fat truck-driving Confederate-flag brute, not actually representing the genuine thoughts of the person saying it - but it still annoys the hell out of me.

Do you not think US foreign policy treats nations differently, and correlated to that different treatment is the race of the population of those nations?

[athelas]

Do you not think US foreign policy treats nations differently, and correlated to that different treatment is the race of the population of those nations?Of course. Why do you think Darfur (Caucasian Arab population oppresses blacks) was such a successful Outrage of the Week, while Zimbabwe (Black government terrorizes white farmers, leading to economic collapse) was not?

[Voyager]

The root cause of many of the issues in the OP is that Americans these days want to get stuff without paying for it. This problem crosses party lines. It explains why we in California vote for lots of expensive propositions and yell about lack of service at the DMV while being dead set against restoring the vehicle license fees whose removal accounts for 1/3 of the deficit. It is why people expect to be able to graduate into good jobs without working in schools, or, worse yet, laughing at those who do. It is why people play the Lottery. It is why people buy stuff they can't afford, on credit. It's why people wanted to invade Iraq and not pay for it, or add drugs to Medicare, and put it on the deficit tab. It's why bankers thought they could get more money out of riskier investments without the risk ever coming back to bite them.

Climate change is just one more example of putting things on credit - I think a lot of the opposition to doing something about it is because it is easier to keep the profits and convenience now and put the carbon on our credit card. When we go environmentally bankrupt, they'll all scream "why didn't anyone tell me!"

[villa]

Of course. Why do you think Darfur (Caucasian Arab population oppresses blacks) was such a successful Outrage of the Week, while Zimbabwe (Black government terrorizes white farmers, leading to economic collapse) was not?

Even if I assume the Zimbabwe land seizures were a moral equivalent of the Darfur attacks, can you explain to me what the US foreign policy response was that was so much greater to Darfur than to Zimbabwe. Especially giventhat we happily bombed the shit out of the Serbian government for committing smaller scale acts of violence against European people.

[BrainGlutton]

We have a fairly sizable population that is hungry, and a fairly sizable population that is poor, and...

And an obesity epidemic of the, well, fairly sizable.

Some problems solve each other! :)

[figure9]

The main problem is ignorance. If people don't have knowledge of a problem they have no hope of finding a solution. Last century the world was pumping out tons of CFCs blissfully unaware of the danger they caused. A lack of knowledge makes people vote based on emotion and opinion. Voting based on a careful weighing of the facts would be much better IMHO.
How do you fix ignorance? That is a hard one. Maybe we could get more people to read the SD that would be a start.

[Perciful]

I sent my kids to Catholic schools and it was worth every penny. They are stand up adults with good jobs and ethics. If I sent them to public school they may have multiple body piercings and look like Lady Gaga. They may have come out fine but I did not want to chance it so I worked to pay for private school.

The biggest problem I see is greed at the gov/corporate level on down. Greed has taken down many a great empire. When money becomes more important then human life and liberty we are becoming like Rome. A bunch of fat, lazy pervs that think the world owes them.

My other gripe is the social slobberers that think we are entitled to get everything for free. I had to work hard to get what I have. It is good for a person to work hard to achieve things. This whole everyone rides for free bus has to be stopped. Free health care isn't free. Working people pay for it and that is why it is the best in the world. You get what you pay for in this world.