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Editor’s note: On last Tuesday’s Kevin Buck column "Straw men live in glass houses," one poster on SignalSCV.com asked the question, "In your opinion, what are the five biggest problems America faces right now?" Here are some responses from his fellow posters.
therightstuff:
Here they are in no particular order and yes, these are just my opinion:1) A national debt that is growing at about $3,000,000 every minute with little courage to deal with it.
2) A sluggish economy with an unemployment rate that has remained stagnant at about 8 percent for several years and an over-dependence on entitlements.
3) Partisan bickering that has paralyzed progress with little hope for compromise for the good of all Americans regardless of party.
4) An uneducated electorate that has been fueled by the rise of social networking and the internet with little or no regard for facts.
5) A moral decline due to a church that has grown complacent, irrelevant, and too willing to compromise it’s values and core beliefs for popularity.
Oh, and one honorable mention. No NFL team in Los Angeles.
Dumbounded:
1) Our current debt2) Our future debt
3) Eroding personal and property rights
4) The utter lack of trust most Americans have in their leaders and leadership
5) People who say "Bingo" to anyone who describes anything remotely close to what their "owners" have to say about "the other guys."
hopeful:
1) the national debt2) Unemployment and underemployment
3) A society that increasing relies on government to solve all its problems instead of people taking responsibility for themselves
4) A U.S. government that believes it alone has the answers to the world’s problems, so it constantly tries to force its will on other countries.
5) Taxpayer-funded pensions that are out of control and/or unsustainable
And, although Indy takes a lot of heat for repeating it...
6) Politicians and the media, who do not tell us the truth about the cost of services, and break it down so the average person can see what the cost of these services will be if they have 0 children, 1 child, 2 children, 3 children, etc.
Manq: 1) Campaign finance law and gerrymandering
2) Campaign finance law and gerrymandering
3) Campaign finance law and gerrymandering
4) Campaign finance law and gerrymandering
5) Campaign finance law and gerrymandering
Solve this and everything else takes care of itself. Follow the money.
Indy:
Therightstuff wrote: "Partisan bickering that has paralyzed progress with little hope for compromise for the good of all Americans regardless of party."This is indeed the crux of the matter. We can’t get good economic information if both parties are appealing to their respective bases with inflammatory rhetoric that hasn’t solved anything for decades.
Everyone here no doubt wants a robust economy in which everyone has some opportunity for earning a living and advancement.
Unfortunately, during the recent SOTU address and rebuttals, both parties failed to address the problems that most effect economic growth including:
How globalization has put downward pressure on middle class wages.
Why no party has done anything to improve poverty over the last 40 years — it’s still as bad as it was in the 70s. ...
Public education continues to be ‘lost’ in partisan politics including blaming the teachers, parents and students and not realizing that "education" is there to help those same people.
Why "free trade" no longer is the panacea that it was once made out to be since the concept of "comparative advantage" was developed by an economist who didn’t know about the Internet and low-cost shipping.
No national energy policy that addresses the limited nature of things like oil to the point that most Americans that drive cars have no clue whatsoever as to the amount of oil we have in the U.S.
And while Kevin Buck didn’t address these items, he did bring up a good discussion about why we have "safety nets" to cushion the shortcomings of capitalism.
Addressing shortcomings is just common sense and isn’t a directive to move the nation to the actual "socialism."
Finally, I agree that compromise is the key, but the compromise should be based on "observable" outcomes not ideology or folklore as noted in the SOTU speech and rebuttal.
