Well, facing specifically the US I’d go with our current political deadlock and the lack of bi-partisan compromise and the national debt which is at staggering levels and is already causing major issues that will only get worse as it continues to rise.
Globally, I’d say global warming is certainly one of the big ones. The rest of those I don’t think are as bad as our political deadlock and increase in partisanship and our debt issues. I was going to say Trump is one of the ‘REAL’ problems we are facing, but he’s more a symptom of the first one (i.e. deadlock and partisanship) and certainly is doing is part to exacerbate the second.
The decay of infrastructure is not a real problem. That is just scare mongering to get more public money.
The biggest problem not going addressed and not mentioned is the opiod epidemic. There are more drug overdose deaths than deaths from car accidents and guns combined.
That one needs to begin with an acknowledgement that it’s not “both sides”.
Obama tried to reach across the aisle and got ass-fucked, culminating in the Garland nomination outrage.
And then, this administration has been entirely tribal and antagonistic to democrats while slowly stripping away every check and balance they can.
Or, let me put it like this: even if you think both sides are at fault, just saying “both sides” has no effect. Let’s just call out bad behaviour: the people actively working to make the environment toxic, and their specific actions.
The Opioid epidemic - A big problem, as it’s actually been a large contributor to lower US life expectancy in recent years.
Overall Economic Insecurity for middle & working class people - The US middle class used to be one of the envies of the world. But they have lost ground over the last 40 years. Unions have been decimated. Pensions are now the exception rather than the rule. Healthcare is expensive. College is often unaffordable. The average working stiff has seen their wages stagnate over the previous 4 or so decades. They’re also in a job market that’s less stable, with hours & wages that fluctuate more during the year.
The Republican Party - This party doesn’t have any answers for the problems facing America. And in some ways, they are making things worse on all fronts - foreign policy, economics, democratic norms, respect for the law, etc. The party has radicalized, and doesn’t show any signs of normalizing. The fact that a grifter like Trump can get nominated and elected is an indication of how far the Republicans have radicalized.
I live in NYC, riding the train (lirr) the other day I saw a white person and a black person having such a nice conversation. The black person was sitting down and the white person standing up (the white man must of been some kind of train engineer). The white guy was explaining the new systems of train technology coming out, and how major cities like Paris, London, Tokyo, are making trains more efficient (electric trains maybe?)… and New York was trying to follow their make trains more effective, to reduce engergy costs. The black guy wasn’t adding much, but he was listening politely and seemed interest.
All too often you don’t see that kind of thing. White people often don’t talk to black people on the train or the subway. Black people are often viewed as beggars in penn station, or on the subway or train. White people ususally just avoid black people and try not to look at them. The homeless in penn station are viewed as beggars, scammers or drug addicts (in some cases they are).
Anyway, I wish rich and educated people in NYC could view the poor of the city as good people also… instead of viewing them as criminals and drug addicts with nothing to be learned from, which they often do.
The decline in life expectancy over the last few years is unprecedented in modern history. It’s partly to do with opioids, partly suicide, partly a mystery. But it’s definitely worrisome.
One of the biggest problems that seldom is talked about is our propensity to want to extend the human lifespan without doing anything meaningful to improve quality of life for those extra years. At this point 45% of people over the age of 85 have Alzheimer’s disease, and it doesn’t look like we’re getting any closer to preventing it. It’s a horrific disease for both the sufferers and their families, and care of these people is costing society nearly three hundred billion dollars this year alone.
That’s a somewhat misleading way of putting it. A huge amount of Alzheimer’s research is being conducted worldwide, it’s just proving a particularly tough nut to crack. We have had better luck with other causes of morbidity, like many cancers.
If you’re arguing that we should spend much more on research, and more on generally slowing ageing (which will reduce or delay dementias as a side effect)…then agreed. But “without doing anything meaningful” is unfair – it’s one of the most researched diseases each year.
The list is a good start, but I would add, in no particular order:
The deterioration of democracy due to various factors including voter suppression, gerrymandering, the exclusionary costs of political campaigns, and most of all, the flood of propaganda from the right-wing plutocracy corrupting the state of public information (thanks in part to idiot rulings like Citizens United).
Gun violence absolutely unprecedented in the industrialized world.
The widening gap between the super-rich and everyone else, and especially the poor.
Notice what all these problems have in common. Pretty much all of them can be assessed as “caused by, or at least worsened by, Republican policies”.
The Republicans used to be a normal political party, with factions like any other party, and they could and did produce and/or support legislation & regulation that helped people. But the grown-ups were weeded out over the last 20 years or so. It’s hard to put a finger on it, but over time, in almost every policy area, the realists were pushed aside and the policy apparatus was hijacked. At this point, they’re nothing more than an empty shell of scam-artist, know-nothings with disdain for average Americans, and no solutions to help average working people.
You could maybe say the radicalization began in the 90’s, when Gingrich was made Speaker. That might have been an inflection point after which the trajectory toward lunacy was set in stone.