NationStates Jolt Archive

What do you believe is top 10 problems in United States?

I really think that the dependance on oil for energy generation is going to come back and bite us in the ass one of these days.

These are in no particular order:

Lack of a national health care system
Lack of fiscal responsibility
Misuse of our national defense system
Lack of a progressive energy policy, with special emphasis on renewable energy sources

There are more, but it's one in the morning and I've been drinking.

There are more, but it's one in the morning and I've been drinking.

Perhaps alcoholism is a major problem in the US?

The War on Drugs.

I'd say the Political Divisions, the Ann Coulters, Rush Limbaughs (and whatever their Left Counterparts are) and their vitriol are also an issue.

The way politics is done in the US is bancrupt in all but financial terms. Sooner or later you'll have to abandon the idea of companies funding politicians.

The division along lines of wealth could make trouble in the future too, should the gap widen further.

A collapse of global markets, probably started by some sort of massive oil catastrophe could make trouble, but that's not something the US can guard itself against.

Environmental Degradation and Global Warming could make trouble too, especially if there are waves of environmental refugees.

But I think the Number One Problem the US faces is the same everyone else has: Defining your place in the world after the Cold War ended.
It used to be that the Soviets were evil oppression, and the US is good freedom. That time is over, there are different countries around which are free and which now make a name for themselves. The EU might have growing pains now, but eventually it'll come out swinging, and the same goes for China and India - by then the US must have defined what it wants to be in the world.
"Peacemaker"/"Military Enforcer"? Imperial Power? Isolationist?

The poor education system or the greedy seniors. Either one.

The first problem has to be the Government, I suppose that'd go down under crime, right?

Perhaps alcoholism is a major problem in the US?
I suppse so, but no more serious than it is anywhere else in the world.

The Government is too big, and it's too powerful. When a government is not afraid to spy on it's own citizen, when it's not afraid to make such laws at the Internet Annoyance Laws. Hell when it's not afraid to arrest and jail people just because they take pictures of airplanes and trains, then that means the government is too big and too powerful. It's not even afraid of it's own citizens anymore.

Also the taxes are too high.

I'd say the Political Divisions, the Ann Coulters, Rush Limbaughs (and whatever their Left Counterparts are) and their vitriol are also an issue.


Nah, that's par for the course with anglo politics. There never were any 'good old days' when it was more reasoned.
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Nah, that's par for the course with anglo politics. There never were any 'good old days' when it was more reasoned.
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Yeah--the main difference now is that the vitriol gets thrown faster, thanks to modern communications. It's not really any nastier today--just spread more quickly and widely.

The Religious Right. I would say the War on Drugs, but if you cut out the cancer that is the RR, the War on Drugs would disappear.

The Religious Right. I would say the War on Drugs, but if you cut out the cancer that is the RR, the War on Drugs would disappear.
Much as I dislike the religious right, I think that's a tough connection to make. The war on drugs began well before the religious right was a political force to be reckoned with, after all.

That there is no such thing as a system of checks and balances.
The idiots of the nation.
That money doesn't just talk these days. It brags and won't shut it's damn mouth.
Oil and the people that profit from it.
CEOs.

I say the biggest problem is that this nation is giving out IOUs now and it's government is staffed with idiots that were elected by the ignorant.

Our tendency to gallop crusading into wars, whether literal or figurative, that cannot be won.

Religion's infringement on our government.

The excessive individual self-interest that abounds here.

I think that covers most of what's wrong with this country.

Much as I dislike the religious right, I think that's a tough connection to make. The war on drugs began well before the religious right was a political force to be reckoned with, after all.

Oh really? You imply that the RR is new. Ever hear of prohibition? They may not have been called the RR back then, but that's what they were.

Oh really? You imply that the RR is new. Ever hear of prohibition? They may not have been called the RR back then, but that's what they were.
Yes, but at the time, they weren't formed into a cohesive political party unit--they were more of a single issue movement. What we currently recognize as the religious right made its presence known in the 80s during the Reagan administration as the Moral Majority, and has grown ever since then into the political machine you see today.

Yes, but at the time, they weren't formed into a cohesive political party unit--they were more of a single issue movement. What we currently recognize as the religious right made its presence known in the 80s during the Reagan administration as the Moral Majority, and has grown ever since then into the political machine you see today.

I know, but I still don't see your point. If those people disappeared, the engine behind the machine of the Drug War vanishes. Or maybe I should be more precise.

If the members of the Religious Right and the supporters of their theocratic view of America were to suddenly be dropped into a volcano- America would be a better place.

I know, but I still don't see your point. If those people disappeared, the engine behind the machine of the Drug War vanishes. Or maybe I should be more precise.

If the members of the Religious Right and the supporters of their theocratic view of America were to suddenly be dropped into a volcano- America would be a better place.
That much I certainly agree with. All I'm saying is that there's more behind the war on drugs than the religious right, and that the war on drugs predates the religious right. The religious right certainly had a hand in resurrecting that war in the late seventies and early eighties, but it was an ongoing war.

The first problem has to be the Government, I suppose that'd go down under crime, right?
Actually goes under terrorism, cuz bush attacked the USA, and also prolly some other nations.

The excessive individual self-interest that abounds here.

Since when is this a bad thing?

In no order,

Religious right
Environmentalist left
Education system is shitty
Taxes and national debt
War on Drugs

And that pretty much sums up everything.

What do you believe is top 10 problems in United States?
1. Environmental protection ( including dependence upon fossil fuels ).

2. Education ( primarily at the middle and secondary levels )

3. Underfunding of basic research.

4. Illegal drugs ( not including marijuana )

5. Debt ( primarily personal )

6. Trying to do too many things at once: "war" on drugs, war on terrorism, relief recovery ( ex: Katrina ), etc.

7. Illegal immigration

8. Corporate irresponsibility

9. Poor health practices by major segments of the population

10. Essentially mindless, ideologial, knee-jerk responses to real problems ( Fundamentalists and "peace at any cost" people spring to mind ).

[x] Debt
[x] Rising Health Cost
[x] Retiree's with little or no retirement funds
[x] Taxes
[x] Crime
[x] Counterfeit/stolen drugs being sold in market/online
[X] Public education !!!
[x] Heavy dependency on foreign oil
[x] Terrorism

Clearly all of the above! You should've made this multiple choice.
More concisely, the public education is probably even still worse than the others :rolleyes:
There's however still a checkbox missing for the biggest problem of all:

Bush :sniper:

1. Lack of enthusiasim for an effective effort on environmental conservation, which covers issues from harvesting wild-life, urban sprawl, and to dependency on foreign oil.

2. Loss of morals that forged this country into what it is today. Where is the American work ethic? Where is the idea of fiscial responsibility? Where is the idea of earning what you have? Where is the idea of honesty? Where is the idea of accountability? Everything else can be placed here, in my opinion, and will correct themselves if we stopped being so centered on the self.

theres only 10 problems with the US? :)

seriously this whole oil thing is getting outta hand.

The government. Period.

Giant gorillas.

the U.S debt is the biggest problem already its increasing and nothing is being done about it soon the U.S will be so far in the red any small disaster would push it into collapse also it doesn’t seem to mind a falling economy

observations by an ignorant European

1. Continuation of neo-con policies that damage the ecconomy and piss the world off

2. Energy Depedance

3. Rise of religous right

4. Ethnic mix ie huge numbers of hispanics moving up from the south

5. Collapse of major industry ie the car manufacturing sector

6. Collapse of public services

7. Over extension of military power that weakens global power

8. Global ecconomic recession

9. Obestity

10. Remaining overly focussed on internal matters. Americans aren't stupid, they just aren't really shown the rest of the world becuase being a super power makes the rest of the world unimportant, well until you lose that position.

God, wtf!? What's with everyone bitching about the education system.

Ever think it's maybe the parents? Consider basically all of america says "Just try your best." But in the day of kids who don't give a f*ck, that just doesn't cut it anymore. It's not a proble in the system.

God, wtf!? What's with everyone bitching about the education system.

Ever think it's maybe the parents? Consider basically all of america says "Just try your best." But in the day of kids who don't give a f*ck, that just doesn't cut it anymore. It's not a proble in the system.


it's really both. dumb parents, and even dumber educators.

I think any nations problem is the government and greedy compagny bosses

I don't know if this would be your number one problem but all your politicians are cunts (as all politicians are) and you have two main groups of supporters who fail to realize that neither the Republicans or Democrats are less cuntish than each other. They are equally cuntish.

The Religious Right. I would say the War on Drugs, but if you cut out the cancer that is the RR, the War on Drugs would disappear.


Tough connection to make; but let's cut them out anyway.

God, wtf!? What's with everyone bitching about the education system.

Ever think it's maybe the parents? Consider basically all of america says "Just try your best." But in the day of kids who don't give a f*ck, that just doesn't cut it anymore. It's not a proble in the system.


AGREED! I, or one, live in Kansas, a dumb-ass creationism state. The HONORS programmes are incredibly easy and also, incredibly slow. Is it a coincidence that on average, liberals have smarter kids than conservatives? I think not.

What's with everyone bitching about the education system.
I agree. Its not necessarily the education system. I don't know when the last time everyone was is in school here, but its more a lack of work ethic than anything on part of the students and teachers. We could just throw more money at it, as we usually do with problems and hope it corrects itself, but then we go to war and end up underfunding any program anyhow.

If America is so stupid, how are we the worlds only Super Power then, with the worlds largest economy? It surely isn't solely dependent on divine providence. :p

Perhaps alcoholism is a major problem in the US?

It was 1 AM on a friday, the original poster spelled everything correctly, and was coherent. He even had enough judgement to imply that he would post later as he was not sufficently able to post at the current time. I think your views on alchoholism are really skewed. Maybe the puritanical alcohol laws should go in this country?

Education - Piss poor.
Crime - Absurd yet tolerated.
Responsibility - (parental, fiscal, otherwise) Non-existent.

This country started going to shit when people stopped having a higher standard to hold themselves too. If we had a standard of self-sufficiency, do you think people would be in debt up to their eyeballs? If we had some pride in our families, do you think we would let our kids be fucking morons? If we had a drop of fucking dignity, do you think we would allow our cities and suburbs to perpetuate generation after generation of criminals?

Nope, but we have a generation of selfish fucktards totally obsessed with their own pathetic lives that the world around them is going to shit.

1. IN god we trust on your money is a major problem

2. Bush too

3. ... to come

Probably our blatant disregard for science and math education is the first; how are we going to remain competitive in the technology sector (the future of the world economy) if we aren't producing large numbers of high-quality graduates in these fields?

Also, subsidies and protectionism of failing industries are also hurting us; this has weakened our competitive edge and hurt our manufacturing sector. We need to eliminate our protections and those of our trading partners if we're going to compete globally.

What do you believe is top 10 problems in United States?

Government attacks on civil liberties is my biggest worry. By a sizeable margin.

Historically, more people have been dragged out of their houses and shot in the street by their own authorities than by any invading force.

The lax gun control, even at the border, which allows for the ease of illegal shipment of firearms into Canada.

The fact that US voters only have two legitamite parties, who are virtually the same, to vote for. I don't include the other parties because they lack the funding to mount a sucsessful national campaign.

as a non-American frequent observer of American politics can I throw in my two cents?

The biggest problems I observe:

(1) Higher levels of crime than what would be tolerated in other Western countries.

(2) Big government (this is a problem all throughout the West though). The government gets entangled in everything, including areas that should be a person's personal perogative (eg, Social Security)

(3) Highly politicised public-sector unions that resist all reforms even those that are in the best interest of the people these unions supposedly serve (eg. School Choice)

(4) The politics of polarisation and the professional hate mongers (eg, Al Franken, Ann Coulter, Michael Moore, Bill O'Reilly)

(5) K street and pork barrel spending.

Racism, sexism, homophobia, capitalism, government, etc.

I agree. Its not necessarily the education system. I don't know when the last time everyone was is in school here, but its more a lack of work ethic than anything on part of the students and teachers. We could just throw more money at it, as we usually do with problems and hope it corrects itself, but then we go to war and end up underfunding any program anyhow.

If America is so stupid, how are we the worlds only Super Power then, with the worlds largest economy? It surely isn't solely dependent on divine providence. :pNothing personal, but if you're actually arguing that the US is currently the world's sole superpower, then you're making the point about US education being poor.

I say the problem is being dependent on oil at all, regardless of where it comes from.

The lax gun control, even at the border, which allows for the ease of illegal shipment of firearms into Canada.


Thats your problem, not ours.



OK, joking aside:

Lack of understanding what a right is combined with a sense of entitlement: I have a right to an education. I have a right to a job. I have a right to lots of money. I have a right to nice clothes. And I don't need to work for them. Gimme. Gimme.

Yes, you have a right to all those things. So go get them. The government and society doesn't give rights. They can only protect or restrict rights. If you need the government to give it to you, its not a right.

You want that education? Work for it. Want that cool job with the fat pay check and benefits? Earn it. Nobody is stopping you from getting them. But, nobody has to give them to you.

Particanism: Adversarial politics has its advantages. This ain't one of them. Its come to the point now where doing whats right has taken a back seat to being right.

As long as Democrats can stick it to Republicans and viice versa, thats what counts.

As long as a conservative can show up a liberal, then he's happy.

Letila's post is an example of this. He takes racism, sexism and homophobia (all forms of bigotry which we all agree are bad) and lumps in an economic system. He doesn't care if it means anything. He doesn't really back it up. He just wants to win a point against capitalism by putting it in as negative a light as possible.

Of course, some militant capitalist will saunter in and do the same thing back the other way. All so he can get that point back.

What did it solve? Not a damn thing. Doesn't even make any headway whatsoever. Just had to get their punches in. Now, they can feel all warm and fuzzy inside with a sense of self satisfaction as if they accomplished something.

It is no longer about actually solving the problem. Its about blaming the other team for it.

Being a nation of obese warmongerers sculpted from raw stupidity...

It is no longer about actually solving the problem. Its about blaming the other team for it.
I blame whoever thinks they're actually on opposing teams.

Being a nation of obese warmongerers sculpted from raw stupidity...

Hope you're not English. Or from any Western European country.

I blame whoever thinks they're actually on opposing teams.

Every argument has more than one side. Otherwise its not an argument.

There is nothing wrong with the argument if you are trying to determine who has the better solution. The problem is when you are arguing just to oppose the other guy.

Hope you're not English. Or from any Western European country.

why?

Because they wrote the book on warmongering and profiteering and obesity is almost as widespread there as bad hygene.

Looks like somebody woke up on the wrong side of the dog that bit him.

OK, she's no beauty queen, but I certainly wouldn't call her a dog. She's more like a ferret.

Because they wrote the book on warmongering and profiteering and obesity is almost as widespread there as bad hygene.

"European" isn't a nationality. I come from a place that never had an army, colonies or went to war.
And I still think being fat ignorant warmongerers is their biggest problem...

10) Limitations on self defense
9) Criminalization of consensual behavior
8) Limitaions on scientific research such as prior restraint through IRBs are universities, DMCA limitations on reverse engineering, broad interpretations of "trade secrets," and government restrictions on stem cell research.
7) Energy concerns (we need to reduce dependence on oil/coal/natural gas and increase use of solar, nuclear, and renewable energy sources such as ethanol and other biofuels)
6) Taxes
5) Education (especially teacher review, reforming schools that do not produce results, and focusing on academics rather than special interests such as sex-ed/intelligent design/phys-ed/etc)
4) Curbing nonessential spending (agricultural subsidies, corporate subsidies, non-specific foreign aid, etc)
3) Curbing congressional power and authority
2) Curbing presidential power and authority
1) Civil/Constitutional rights (especially 2nd, 4th, 5th, and 9th amendment issues)

"European" isn't a nationality. I come from a place that never had an army, colonies or went to war.
And I still think being fat ignorant warmongerers is their biggest problem...

Thats why I said "any Western European country" pointing out there are many that did and still are exploiting the countries they "civilized". Now, I'll be ignoring you until you can actually bring something to the conversation.

That and I was just making a joke at your expense.