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

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?

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. :slight_smile:

Here’s one:

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.

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

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.

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

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.

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

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

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

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

Which other natural resources are we facing shortages on?

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.)

Why be right when you can be smug and unanswerable?

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

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.

Imputation’s cheaper than argument.

Sometimes violently so:

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

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

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

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.