7 ms·

I'm curious, what do you think those 'things we have to fix' first are? Why they are a higher priority?

dgzl 7y ago
These are contentious so please don't downvote for an idea... To start, I think a severe underlying problem America is facing is just that there isn't much community here, compared to other first world countries. How long have our families been living in the same place? Not long for most of us. I think this is causing some turmoil in the trust department. Also, we really need to work on our regulations. We have a bad habit of legislating from the heart, but end up producing side effects that hurt us. For instance, laws preventing giving food to the homeless. Over-regulating also drives cost up for business, causing them to raise prices. Another is minimum wage. Americans have a hard time admitting that increasing minimum wage has negative side effects, especially on small business. We can address the homeless problem pretty easily if we could decrease the minimum wage for them. And before you get angry at this one, what kind of smartphone are you using? There's a reason our jobs go over seas. Jobs that would pay very low wage wouldn't be difficult jobs, but they also wouldn't care if the person is only half mentally there. Small pay, small work, you can be promoted and given raise. A factory for instance could even build a campground with facilities. How many homeless folks would love to have that opportunity? How many more potential employers does that produce? We should also consider decreasing the federal budget and start paying off our debt, no? I would think that's a pretty important thing to keep in mind also. These things are needed in order to achieve a more universal happiness.
- DrOctagon 7y ago
  That's a thoughtful answer, thanks. I don't agree with all of your points, but I do think of progress as something which benefits everyone, including vulnerable people too.
- johnday 7y ago
  It's a shame the larger corporate machine wouldn't wear it, but you could, say, have a lower (or subsidised?) minimum wage for the first 2 years of business operation?
- dbspin 7y ago
  >We can address the homeless problem pretty easily if we could decrease the minimum wage for them... Jobs that would pay very low wage wouldn't be difficult jobs, but they also wouldn't care if the person is only half mentally there. Small pay, small work, you can be promoted and given raise. A factory for instance could even build a campground with facilities." Congratulations, you've just reinvented fuedalism, complete with the keep. Not trying to be flippant, but this is a perfect example of how 'rational' geeks can trivially rationalise literally anything, by ignoring context and history. Protections like minimum wage, safe working conditions, minimum work age etc didn't arise de novo. They exist (all be it in a much more limited form in the US than elsewhere in the developed world), because of repeated public outrage at the abuses their lack engendered. Repealing them to 'create jobs' as though that were in itself a nebulous good is the same logic that has prisoners in chain gangs (universally from poor, and overwhelmingly black) recreating the era of slavery in Texas.
  - bubble_talk 7y ago
    >>because of repeated public outrage at the abuses their lack engendered. I recommend anyone who holds this view to read at least one book written by Thomas Sowell. Example: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unsafe_at_Any_Speed#Criticisms_of_the_book https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unsafe_at_Any_Speed#Criticisms... Repeated public outrage: cars are becoming less safe. Economist: There is a tradeoff between safety and affordability, and making cars safer means less poor people can actually afford to buy them. In turn, this makes transportation even harder for them, which in turn means they will have fewer chances to improve their lives. Repeated public outrage: lack of minimum wage will cause more exploitation. Economist: Minimum wage destroys job opportunities for low skilled workers, who are already heavily marginalized in society. And once they are out of the job market, it becomes even harder for them to return to it.
    - kiba 7y ago
      The root problem of transportation is governments favoring roads over mass transits and bicycles, making cars a requirement for living in the country as opposed to optional, not safety regulations of motor vehicles.
- atoav 7y ago
  I am not American but to me it is clear that your idea here would increase the inbalance you already got there. Namely the inbalance between private corporations and the state. Many of the problems the US has are not rooted in state action, but in the actions of companies, their lobbyists and politicians that own said companies. So you want to reduce the only leverage any honest regular hard working citizen has? To do what? Save money? How about taxing companies properly for starters? You are the second-biggest market in the world after all. And another thing: if your goals are to decrease unemployment, homelessness and incarceration it is a totally valid strategy to state those goals publicly. The european givernments I lived under always do this and it doesn’t really seem to have the devastating economic consequences typical US-citizen’ always tell me it must have. It is amazing how ingrained that corporate think is in the US and how unable people are to see that there are other things inbetween full on anarcho-capitalism and soviet style single party oligarchy.
  - marcus_holmes 7y ago
    this. From an outside point of view, I think you could solve most of the problems of the USA if you just stopped allowing corporations to influence politicians so much.
    - Ididntdothis 7y ago
      I think the obsession with billionaires and the glorification of rich people should stop. The public discourse often feels like we just need to keep rich people happy so they can shower their generosity through “created ” jobs on the rest of the population.
- adrianN 7y ago
  The problem with paying people extremely little for "easy" work is that they don't make enough money to live. Pay in Vietnam or wherever is much lower, but so is cost of living. I don't see the point of having people work forty hours weeks when they can't afford an apartment, food, and the other basic necessities of life. I also don't think that paying off state debt right now is a good idea. Interest rates are pretty much zero or even negative. We should instead borrow as much as possible. For example we could invest trillions into getting rid of fossil fuels in the next twenty years. That would also create many jobs.
- inflatableDodo 7y ago
  I think it is a very achievable goal in the USA, if the USA took the money to achieve those goals directly from the military budget, it would still have the largest military budget in the world. And on health, it would actually save money. But also, I think this was not meant to be US specific. The real political challenge is trying to do it for everyone. Doing it for the US is easy.
- goatinaboat 7y ago
  We can address the homeless problem pretty easily if we could decrease the minimum wage for them This statement reveals a lack of knowledge of the root causes of the homelessness epidemic. Those who are homeless for purely economic reasons are a tiny minority. More often than not homelessness is a second order effect of mental health issues compounded by breakdown in family/community. Those need to be addressed first. Go do some volunteering and you will very quickly start to understand.
- ptah 7y ago
  > Americans have a hard time admitting that increasing minimum wage has negative side effects, especially on small business. If you can't afford to pay employees, then your business is not viable

dgzl 7y ago

These are contentious so please don't downvote for an idea... To start, I think a severe underlying problem America is facing is just that there isn't much community here, compared to other first world countries. How long have our families been living in the same place? Not long for most of us. I think this is causing some turmoil in the trust department. Also, we really need to work on our regulations. We have a bad habit of legislating from the heart, but end up producing side effects that hurt us. For instance, laws preventing giving food to the homeless. Over-regulating also drives cost up for business, causing them to raise prices. Another is minimum wage. Americans have a hard time admitting that increasing minimum wage has negative side effects, especially on small business. We can address the homeless problem pretty easily if we could decrease the minimum wage for them. And before you get angry at this one, what kind of smartphone are you using? There's a reason our jobs go over seas. Jobs that would pay very low wage wouldn't be difficult jobs, but they also wouldn't care if the person is only half mentally there. Small pay, small work, you can be promoted and given raise. A factory for instance could even build a campground with facilities. How many homeless folks would love to have that opportunity? How many more potential employers does that produce? We should also consider decreasing the federal budget and start paying off our debt, no? I would think that's a pretty important thing to keep in mind also. These things are needed in order to achieve a more universal happiness.

DrOctagon 7y ago
That's a thoughtful answer, thanks. I don't agree with all of your points, but I do think of progress as something which benefits everyone, including vulnerable people too.
johnday 7y ago
It's a shame the larger corporate machine wouldn't wear it, but you could, say, have a lower (or subsidised?) minimum wage for the first 2 years of business operation?
dbspin 7y ago
>We can address the homeless problem pretty easily if we could decrease the minimum wage for them... Jobs that would pay very low wage wouldn't be difficult jobs, but they also wouldn't care if the person is only half mentally there. Small pay, small work, you can be promoted and given raise. A factory for instance could even build a campground with facilities." Congratulations, you've just reinvented fuedalism, complete with the keep. Not trying to be flippant, but this is a perfect example of how 'rational' geeks can trivially rationalise literally anything, by ignoring context and history. Protections like minimum wage, safe working conditions, minimum work age etc didn't arise de novo. They exist (all be it in a much more limited form in the US than elsewhere in the developed world), because of repeated public outrage at the abuses their lack engendered. Repealing them to 'create jobs' as though that were in itself a nebulous good is the same logic that has prisoners in chain gangs (universally from poor, and overwhelmingly black) recreating the era of slavery in Texas.
- bubble_talk 7y ago
  >>because of repeated public outrage at the abuses their lack engendered. I recommend anyone who holds this view to read at least one book written by Thomas Sowell. Example: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unsafe_at_Any_Speed#Criticisms_of_the_book https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unsafe_at_Any_Speed#Criticisms... Repeated public outrage: cars are becoming less safe. Economist: There is a tradeoff between safety and affordability, and making cars safer means less poor people can actually afford to buy them. In turn, this makes transportation even harder for them, which in turn means they will have fewer chances to improve their lives. Repeated public outrage: lack of minimum wage will cause more exploitation. Economist: Minimum wage destroys job opportunities for low skilled workers, who are already heavily marginalized in society. And once they are out of the job market, it becomes even harder for them to return to it.
  - kiba 7y ago
    The root problem of transportation is governments favoring roads over mass transits and bicycles, making cars a requirement for living in the country as opposed to optional, not safety regulations of motor vehicles.
atoav 7y ago
I am not American but to me it is clear that your idea here would increase the inbalance you already got there. Namely the inbalance between private corporations and the state. Many of the problems the US has are not rooted in state action, but in the actions of companies, their lobbyists and politicians that own said companies. So you want to reduce the only leverage any honest regular hard working citizen has? To do what? Save money? How about taxing companies properly for starters? You are the second-biggest market in the world after all. And another thing: if your goals are to decrease unemployment, homelessness and incarceration it is a totally valid strategy to state those goals publicly. The european givernments I lived under always do this and it doesn’t really seem to have the devastating economic consequences typical US-citizen’ always tell me it must have. It is amazing how ingrained that corporate think is in the US and how unable people are to see that there are other things inbetween full on anarcho-capitalism and soviet style single party oligarchy.
- marcus_holmes 7y ago
  this. From an outside point of view, I think you could solve most of the problems of the USA if you just stopped allowing corporations to influence politicians so much.
  - Ididntdothis 7y ago
    I think the obsession with billionaires and the glorification of rich people should stop. The public discourse often feels like we just need to keep rich people happy so they can shower their generosity through “created ” jobs on the rest of the population.
adrianN 7y ago
The problem with paying people extremely little for "easy" work is that they don't make enough money to live. Pay in Vietnam or wherever is much lower, but so is cost of living. I don't see the point of having people work forty hours weeks when they can't afford an apartment, food, and the other basic necessities of life. I also don't think that paying off state debt right now is a good idea. Interest rates are pretty much zero or even negative. We should instead borrow as much as possible. For example we could invest trillions into getting rid of fossil fuels in the next twenty years. That would also create many jobs.
inflatableDodo 7y ago
I think it is a very achievable goal in the USA, if the USA took the money to achieve those goals directly from the military budget, it would still have the largest military budget in the world. And on health, it would actually save money. But also, I think this was not meant to be US specific. The real political challenge is trying to do it for everyone. Doing it for the US is easy.
goatinaboat 7y ago
We can address the homeless problem pretty easily if we could decrease the minimum wage for them This statement reveals a lack of knowledge of the root causes of the homelessness epidemic. Those who are homeless for purely economic reasons are a tiny minority. More often than not homelessness is a second order effect of mental health issues compounded by breakdown in family/community. Those need to be addressed first. Go do some volunteering and you will very quickly start to understand.
ptah 7y ago
> Americans have a hard time admitting that increasing minimum wage has negative side effects, especially on small business. If you can't afford to pay employees, then your business is not viable