What's wrong with the United States!? How can you fix it!?

Question

I challenge anyone willing to the following:

1) Define 3 issues/problems the U.S. faces, either domestic or foreign.
2) Explain why they are important, your rationale for choosing them, and some information regarding them (cause, effect, etc.)
3) As best you can, construct a solution to these issues.

I will read every answer in its entirety and select the most compelling one as the best answer.

Feel free to criticize the current administration (or support them), but do not do so in an unfounded and slanderous fashion. I will only consider answers with sincere replies and well argued points.

No gibberish, profanity, or outrageous/offensive claims please, as I will report you.

No, this is not for homework. I am in college, a business major, and am currently at my internship.

I am just interested in creating a forum for positive discussion about our government, its problems and what Ideas we the people have to solve them.

Answer 1

1) Education - Probably our biggest problem. we are currently about 10th in the world in education out of the top 20 indutrialized nations, which is pretty poor. Education is the key to future success at any level, from individuals with better qualifications to better knowedge to run a country. the no child left behind act dumps money into helping those who are way below par, while the most intelligent could use better programs to develop them faster. The policy should be more money into education period, not just for those who are struggling

2) Foreign Policy - Any coutry is going to promote the policies which benefit it most, but at what expense? The Iraq war was a huge blow to the american image, along with many other of our programs. we are contiually losing world support, which turns into dollars pretty quickly, and also creates new enemies. to fix this, i would say install a much deeper analysis into each decision that the country is about to make

3) Congress Procedures - nothing gets done in congress because there are so many ways to shoot down a vote on a policy that even a very small dissenting group can achieve it. plus the fact that many congressmen dont listen to the people who voted them into office. real issues can be tackled, but instead of focusing on poverty and healthcare, we are too busy dealing with the "important" issues such as abortion. Im sorry, but there should be a serious prioritization of issues when it comes to this country, because more people care about the controversial issues which can take the side burner than the important ones which will define the direction that this country is heading in.

Answer 2

Ok i'm not American but i'll give it a go!

1) Climate change. America makes up the large majority of carbon emmission which are affecting climate change and yet nothing is being done about.

My solution would be to try and invite a way of powering vehicles without using fossil fuels. The technology is there but it isn't being researched and developed.

2) Natural disaster aid. After the flooding in mississppi the US government took 4 days to send aid to the people. This was unacceptable for the worlds super power. If its happened once it will happen again because it stems from complacencey from the government.

The solution would be to send all nearby aid to the scene straight away. While its enroute a stategy can be planned rather than waiting to form a strategy then waiting for the aid to get there.

3) War on terror. The war on terror does not actually exist. I have no doubt that the US wants to catch terrorists but instead they are attacking middle eastern countries without valid evidence that they are anything to do with terrorism.

The solution would be to hunt down the terrorists with anti terrorist units. Bombarding an entire country does not work. Also as the majority of the 9/11 bombers were saudi's it would make sense for the government to look into saudi arabia for terrorists rather than just strike up more deals for money.

Answer 3

1. Religion is slowly being removed from society. Religion is the basis of the US Laws. I can't belive so many oppose the "Ten Commandments" being in a court house ... or that so many oppose a Christan Float in a City sponsored Christmas Parade. Why is the the "Pledge of Allegiance" being under attack? I can continue to support leaders like Pres. George W. Bush and his administartion who understand that "Freedom of Religion" does not mean extinction of religion.

2. "Correctional Facilities" don't correct. Many who commit crime are habitual repeaters. Prisons only take the person out of society and do not find constructive ways to reform the person. Movies and televison glamorize crime, and it almost seems normal that a person would kill prostitutes, or pedifiles are normal because monkies have sex with the young, so why shouldn't old men? Then when they get busted, very few put their actions as damaging to themselves or to society. In fact, when a drunk driver hits another car, the drunk driver is told by his lawyer to deny all responsability and never to say sorry to the person/ family they've hurt ... so, how can the realization of the accident ever penitrate this person???

3. Government is creating "Unfair" limited liability laws. These laws protect the time limit and the monetary damages the government (who has endless pockets) while increasing the time limits and monetary penalties to private institutions. This un-balance will eventually bankrupt private institutions and allow only government institutions to stand. OK, I'm clueless on how to stop "Big Government" ... when Pres GW Bush was elected, I was so hoping he would reduce the size of Govt ... but 911 and those terrorists hindered that plan, and now, I don't ever see getting a small govt again.

Answer 4

Three issues: Social Security; borders & immigration; and lastly, term limits.
Social Security is important because we are all getting older (yes we all age despite plastic surgery & botox), people who have jobs are paying into a system that should supplement them in their old age, but yet people who have never paid in to the system , or at least very little, are reaping huge rewards. This like the welfare system needs a major overhaul.

Securing our borders and controlling immigration; like welfare and social security, this needs to be overhauled as well. Too many people come into this country, most work hard and become citizens, but the scant few who collect welfare, crowd emergency rooms with kids that only have the sniffles, and take advantage of the government are the ones that we need to get rid of.

Term limits; Congress was not designed to be a "lifetime" job. You stop representing the people when you stay for ever! Your agenda is power, not doing what is right and good for the people you should be representing.

Sorry, but the solution may be too difficult for my little mind. There needs to be drastic changes made, but I do not think we will see them in our lifetime. I hope we can, but I doubt it.

Answer 5

OK where to start
1 The us wants to rule the world
2 The us uses more power per head than the rest of the world
3 the us is the biggest bully in the world
4 The us is scared of nobody exept the jews
5 The us invaded Iraq because Saddam wanted to change the currency for buying oil from dollars to euros
6The us has won every war in the history of the world(according to hollywood)
7 The us helped to fund the terrorist attrocities aganst the English people by the IRA
8The us comitted the biggest war crime in history (the A_Bomb)just ask the japanese who are still suffering from this dispicable act
9 They're all fat
10The us couldn't contain a bunch of underarmed undertrained "gooks" your name not mine
How much more do you need

Answer 6

1) A. illegal immagration
B. defecit
C. oil companies

2) A. illegal immagration is causing jobs to disappear. granted they are not the most glourious jobs but teens around the country make money on those jobs (cutting grass, dishwashing, etc.) The immagrants get paid like $2 an hour to do these jobs which is not right. eventually more and more of them will come to this country to find work and put more americans out of work.
B. The US defecit is like 9 trillion dollars. pretty soon the economy will fail because of this. every day it just gets bigger. we need to find unneccesary programs or other things and cut the funding. raising taxes, though most americans wont like it, must be done. in the long run the economy will improve, the defecit will shrink and more money will become available for education, healthcare, etc.
C. Oil companies are making billions in profit while people claim oil is running out. it is just a scam to make them richer. the lobbyists in congress prevent anyone from fighting the companies by bribing them. while they are making all this money americans are paying $3 or more for a gallon of gas.

3) A. to stop illegal immagration there needs to be more border security. they should have to pay taxes just like everyone else and stop recieving all of this federal aid. there shoulld be laws put in place saying u must be a citizen to recieve this aid. they can also just come here legally. go to the border and register or whatever they need to do to become legal citizens. thats what american was founded on LEGAL immagration.
B. raising taxes, cutting funding for unnecessary programs, reducing military presence in Iraq and Afghanistan and stop giving the millions to Isreal everyday(forgot the amount) they can handle themselves.
C. Make lobbying illegal. put federal checks into the oil companies to monitor what they do.

Answer 7

1. A federal court system that makes up laws rather than interpreting the constitution as it was written. For example, unless you are a constitutional scholar, I bet no one here can tell me how Food Stamps passed constitutional muster.

With a constitution that can mean anything (auras and penumbras) it means nothing. It is subject to the whims of political polls.

Solution: Elect more officials who will appoint and confirm original-intent constitutionalist judges. (e.g., GW Bush)

2. Unless you haven't noticed, we are at war with Islamic radicals. These people represent no government, deliberately target civilians and wear no uniforms. Therefore, they do not fit the description of the Geneva Convention as a lawful combatant. They are not covered.

By giving them 'rights' it makes it more difficult to prevent more of these*.

Solution. See one above.

3. Transfer payments. The federal government shouldn't take money from A to GIVE it to B, unless B did something to EARN it. That holds for giant corporations, mom-&-pop stores, farmers, people who live in flood plains, senior citizens or babies.

It kills insentive and costs the taxpayers hundreds of billions of dollars per year. As stated in 1. above they should not be constitutional.

Solution. See 1 above.

Answer 8

I don't think there are THREE issues that should be focused on without looking at one very important issue: this divided nation.

Since 9/11 (it began long before but sped up since then), we have turned into a nation of name-calling. 'Liberals' and 'Neocons' are destroying us with one finger - their index. All they do is tell eachother how THEY are screwing up the country.

Noone can seem to find a middle ground. There will always be extreme leftists and rightists, but as long as we buy into those extreme beliefs that other Americans are enemies, there will NOT always be an America.

Answer 9

I have only 1.

The answer is the Voters.

Half don't participate, and the rest decide who to vote for based on perceptions and sound bites that come out of both parties.

The Voters don't demand debates of the REAL issues, and any candidate who tries to address them is labeled anti-something and has no chance of winning an election.

If you fix the voters, all other problems will be solved. We get the government that we deserve.

Answer 10

too many special interest groups, and one issue voters is what is wrong with this country, along with a good dose of decadence and laziness and shortsighted short term easy fixes. Not to mention religion rearing its ugly head and messing about in politics. the idea that some people would vote in a man to run this country based on the fact that he is against gay marraige sickens me. These are not actual problems i guess, three of those would be a dwindling of natural resources, a brain drain, and 200 years of abuse of goverment powers until we end up with what we have now; a laughing stock of an untrusted and unrespected instition of "leadership"