Here’s a problem: Many Americans can’t afford medical care. Er, not sure where the author has been since the November 2008 election, but President Barack Obama

Here’s a problem: Many Americans can’t afford medical care. Er, not sure where the author has been since the November 2008 election, but President Barack Obama made tackling this decades long problem a signature issue of his presidency, and actually got the problem addressed comprehensively. Sure, there is still work to do, but health care which makes up 1/3 of the economy was never going to be solved by programmers building web apps. And there are projects pushing technology forward in this area to increase efficiency. Here’s another problem: Many Americans can’t afford a decent education, and many parts of our public school system suck. There are technology projects working on improving this, both within the school system and in the tech arena. Here’s another, even more pressing problem: Many Americans are homeless. Many can’t afford to eat. I'm not sure how technology might solve homelessness, but there are actual real world answers like food banks and soup kitchens to address the hunger issue. The homeless experiment posted on Nev Blog shows how relatively easy it is for real homeless people (not those that panhandle, then jump into sports cars, or those with addictive habits to feed) to acquire food. (http://www.nevblog.com/homeless-experiment/ http://www.nevblog.com/homeless-experiment/) The author reflects on some problems in America -- where even the poor are really not that poor by the standards of many other nations -- and seeks solutions in technology because technology is good at solving certain kinds of problems, especially ones mechanical in nature. This doesn't mean it can solve any kind of problem. Large, longstanding, complex socio-economic problems can't be solved by Twitter type applications. The kinds of problems of which the author speaks require a combination of educated people, politics, and economic focuses for making any real difference. Technology may certainly help, but it's not the sole answer.