Rather than posting on the scandals and news stories to which the media are devoting so much attention today, I’d prefer to ask a question. What are the most important issues of the day for the United States? I think they are
- Immigration
- Our overextended military
- Health care costs
- General government misfeasance and incompetence
- Cybersecurity
- Hyperpoliticization for its own sake
What do you think the big issues are?
Immigration. The others can all be fixed, but we can only lose our country once.
That’s a good list. I would probably add something about our current unsustainable economic problems and the continuing problems from globalization.
I think that addressing those problems will go a long way towards addressing the problems you point out. For example, reducing the number of entry-level or low-wage immigrants will re-orient our economy away from some areas and towards others. It will change the areas in which investment takes place.
The same is true of rationalizing the role of health care. We are drastically overinvesting in that area which leaves other areas begging.
Demanding greater competence from government will mean we will get more bang for the buck. Government is underperforming so drastically that the question of whether wages in government are too or too low is practically meaningless.
Yeah, its a good list. I would say that chasing government incompetence will be disappointing. As far as politicization, that’s really media driven. The politicians are simply adapting to the rules of the game.
I would add more definition to government corruption. As the reporting of John Solomon has revealed, confirmed in just about all respects by the recently released Ohr 302’s, the FBI, intelligence, DoJ and State are in a complete politically driven mess. Abuse of power will be the best characterization. Depending on how deft the players were, criminal prosecutions may and should be pursued for some. What transpired was no ordinary political dirty tricks.
That’s subsumed in “misfeasance and incompetence”. I chose those words carefully, trying to avoid assigning motives. Never attribute to malice etc.
Good list, but it concentrates on the government side. I would add the following, some of which are also government related.
1) Privatized profits and socialized loss.
2) Loss of ethics in business practice. (Not actually limited to business as we certainly have that problem with organized religion.)
3) Focus on short term profits over long term.
4) Conspiracy culture.
Steve
Steve
Steve, I think that several of your issues are best addressed by government reform. Short of another Great Awakening or the Second Coming I’m not sure how the rest could be addressed.
Steve’s #1 is the best of his list, but Dave correctly observes…….
I would add the vulnerability of our electric grid. I also think our growing debt, unsustainable entitlement programs, burdensome pensions are all future challenges yet to be addressed.
I would add the black underclass. The violence and dependency in that group is a threat to all of us. Nearly all the problems people talk about are basically black problems: gun violence, murders, hate crimes, women-headed “families,” lack of even minimal education, joblessness, drug culture, …