What is the biggest social and economic problem we have in the USA currently?

Question

I know there is a lot

Answer 1

Our slow move towards socialism.

Answer 2

The biggest social problem is the growing gap between rich and poor and the concentration of wealth in the hands of the very few. This problem is exacerbated by the current income tax structure. Left unabated, our country will become a cesspool of third-world like conditions for everyone but the rich who will live in gated communities with private security to keep out the minions. The wealthy will continue to concentrate economic and political power among themselves and divide the spoils produced by everybody else for their own benefit. Social unrest will follow with the possibility of armed insurrection.

Economically the US is on very, very thin ice. Our current war economy is propped up by huge deficits that we borrow from other countries. If the economy slows down the dept may be called and we will not be able to pay. Then the crap will really hit the fan. Energy costs are going to double in the next ten years and the US does not have any sort of plan in place to deal with it. The money that is currently being wasted in Iraq could have been spent on mass-transit projects here at home which in turn would reduce our dependence on fossil fuels. In the next 50 to 100 years, both coasts will be flooded out due to rising tides from global warming. The cost of relocating our cities inland will be staggering.

Good luck young people....

Answer 3

The fact is that it doesn't matter who becomes our next President. There is no Republican or Democrat, it's left & right hands, connected to the same brain. It's an illusion to give people the feeling like they have a say in what goes on. Our government leaders especially the Presidency, happens to be nothing more than a glorified puppet show at this point. Go ask 10 people on the streets who prints the money in their wallets. More than likely they will say the government. There is nothing Federal or Reserve about the people who print our money, they are untouched by our government & they control our country. Their agenda is the ONLY one that will come to fruition. Research for the truth, it will surely set you free.

Answer 4

Social problems are affected by economic ones and vice versa. So this is my opinion:

Technological acceleration is the biggest underlying problem in this country.

Tech, globalization and capitalism are racing us toward a place where we no longer have a need for human labor. Yes, gradually, the rich get richer and the poor get poorer under this sytem. But the main problem is that there is profit in every technological advancement, and that will soon undermine the purpose for ourselves. I know it sounds like something of science fiction, but this will have the biggest impact on both economic and social struggles.

Answer 5

Imo our biggest issue is that we have forgotten or failed to learn the required elements for economic hope to exist.

That economic hope [the hope that your family's future will be observably better a generation from now] is something fundamentally desirable to worldwide humanity seems an incontrovertable lesson from the divided countries [Germany, Viet-Nam, Korea] past and continuing drift toward capitalism and economic freedom.

It seems to me that a significant portion of Americans have forgotten or never learned the fundamental requirements for economic hope to exist.

I see those requirements as:

private property, beginning with worker ownership of pay
lack of warfare at home
personal or family responsibility

plus the following economic items

work in paid jobs
increasing learning and skills
increasing quality and number of tools [investment]
and [smallest effect] improving worker health

**
It is not enough that you have a job that pays something.

Each of us needs to be improving our learning and skills continuously (which leads to pay raises above inflation) and using continuously better and larger tools (which also leads to pay raises). These are two of the prime drivers of productivity growth [the third is increasing foreign trade caused by increasing specialization of output].

Further economic progress is possible through increasing the number of work years and reducing days of work lost to illness, both of which require continuously improving worker health. {We're been very lax about taxing many of the causes of worker ill health in order to reduce the volume of those causes. Alcohol, tobacco, and illegal drugs are the three biggest items here. Obesity is rapidly becoming a fourth major health issue.}

{NOTE: improving worker health is LESS cost effective than improving learning and skills or increasing the quality and quantity of tools employed in terms of boosting the economy and thus the hope of a better future.}

***
We are not able to re-make the human psyche. The inbuilt drive to improve the lot of your family can not and will not be significantly reduced.

The sooner we cease pretending that we can freeze human progress [and thus freeze economic growth and the processes of technological change referred to by an astute fellow above] the sooner we can provide hope to everyone.

:-)

Answer 6

Socially it's political correctness and the one-sidedness of hate crimes. Political correctness is stupid and dangerous. Hate crimes can only be committed apparently by Caucasian straight males. No person belonging to other groups, ever gets charged with or prosecuted for hate crimes.

Economically it's the political effect that the lobbyists of big business have on government. this is why we have a huge trade imbalance with China, import a lot of Chinese goods (sometimes dangerous goods), let Walmart expand like a cancer and exploit local and foreign workers, let banks and credit card companies exploit their customers with excessive charges and harmful loans, let the insurance companies dictate healthcare, and foreign companies buy out the country.

Answer 7

I'd have to say the education system. Uneducated kids grow up to become uneducated adults.

Others: illegal immigration, health care, corporate greed, unethical politicians, K-Street lobbyists, race relations

Answer 8

Greed.

For it to change, it will take a revision of popular thought. Capitalism works, but greed is it's biggest hurdle.

Answer 9

only one! that's going to be hard to narrow down.

1) education. you want to know why China and India are taking all our jobs...not just cheap labor but smart labor too. many of our high-tech sector is moving out also, where does that leave us?

2) healthcare. we give billions in aid to the world over but our own people can't even get basic health services.

3) infrastructure. we have bridges and flood walls collapsing killing hundreds. our public transit is nonexistant except in the very largest cities leading to congested roadways (decreasing quality of life for us who spend 2 hours a day in traffic, increasing our dependancy on oil to fuel all our cars, incerasing greenhouse gases, and increasing the number of deaths in traffic accidents every year).

Answer 10

Americas biggest problem is drugs. The USA can protect itself from being destroyed by external aggression. Whereas drugs destroys a nation from within like a cancer in a body.

Answer 11

illegals comin across the border = lots of problems -- build the freakin fence and go after employers that hire illegals -- inforce the laws already on the books -- we do not need any more