3 ms·

The two biggest problems in the USA: 1. Education is not a priority. 2. The populous by and large accepts cable news as "news" and not as capitalist entertainm

The two biggest problems in the USA: 1. Education is not a priority. 2. The populous by and large accepts cable news as "news" and not as capitalist entertainment. Solve the first problem and you solve the second - give it a decade or two and this place isn't nearly as bad off as it's become in the last 20 years.

schnable 6y ago
I don't think this is right at all. Higher education is correlated to treating politics as a hobby (treating politics as sports, essentially) which is exactly what drives the incentive to create a never ending news-outrage cycle. https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2020/01/political-hobbyists-are-ruining-politics/605212/ https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2020/01/political-...
- goatherders 6y ago
  Who said anything about higher education? I'm talking about basic civics, basic economics, and basic science. You don't have to look very far to find people beset by ignorance.
- happytoexplain 6y ago
  A. I agree that treating politics as sports is ruining everything, but I don't agree that "going to college" is a reasonable thing to point to as the source of the problem. B. The pros and cons of "higher education" is a drop in the bucket of reasons US education is "bad". All the years prior to university are much more important. Having gone through the system in "good" schools, I couldn't agree with the parent post more. However, none of it can begin until the generic stigma of "more education = bad" is destroyed (which probably first means destroying the one real thing that is fueling that image, which is the price of college and subsequent class warfare).
  - goatherders 6y ago
    Thank you. I don't understand why my original comment is receiving a number of downvotes; the American public is wildly under-eductated considering the resources available.
gremlinsinc 6y ago
I think the two biggest problems are: 1. corruption in politics. (Revolving door, lobbyists, etc.. -- which creates the two problems you mentioned above). See: https://represent.us https://represent.us for examples. This should be a bi-partisan issue. 2. Two party system (fueled by the above), but if congress was partially filled by party preference we'd see a wider view. For example say a state gets 20 reps, well 10 of those are voted in, 10 are party preference (5% of vote or more). So say green party gets 20%, Libertarian 10%, Democrat 40%, GOP 30%. Green: 2, Libertarian: 1, Dem: 4, GOP: 3. Also moving to ranked choice voting would be nice. Not sure how the dynamics of the senate could be changed, except maybe instead of states we just cut the country into equal-sized geometric shapes and each 'shape' gets a senator. I also believe the house should be expanded per the constitution that calls for about 2500 based on current population. (1 per 100,000 pop). It'd make more jobs and give more people voices as well. Term limits would help too, maybe not permanent ones but make it so you can only be senator/congressman 1 term back-to-back. This also makes it so you're never 'campaigning' while 'working'. You'd sit out 4 years, then you could rotate back in (if you win). Supreme Court should also have term limits, and a dynamic #. Say each president coming in gets to pick 1-2 justices (to get an odd number, say one dies in October, and isn't replaced by inauguration...), each justice serves 10 years and then is up for re-election. I also think the house should pick 'contenders', then all of congress and the senate vote (by ranked choice), maybe the president's vote counts as 50, giving him a 'weighted' decision, but still there's more representation in the vote. If we could redo the constitution, these would be some things to make it more fair. imho.
- goatherders 6y ago
  As a former political scientist and political operative, I often wondered what would happen if members of congress received $10 million (or some "I am plenty rich") sum the moment they left office on the condition they could never have another job on their lives. How would behavior change? Who would run? Who would try to get reelected? Also thought that the converse would be an interesting case as well: once you leave congress any $ you make above, say, $150k a year is donated to charity or taxed at 100%.
  - 6y ago

schnable 6y ago

I don't think this is right at all. Higher education is correlated to treating politics as a hobby (treating politics as sports, essentially) which is exactly what drives the incentive to create a never ending news-outrage cycle. https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2020/01/political-hobbyists-are-ruining-politics/605212/ https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2020/01/political-...

goatherders 6y ago
Who said anything about higher education? I'm talking about basic civics, basic economics, and basic science. You don't have to look very far to find people beset by ignorance.
happytoexplain 6y ago
A. I agree that treating politics as sports is ruining everything, but I don't agree that "going to college" is a reasonable thing to point to as the source of the problem. B. The pros and cons of "higher education" is a drop in the bucket of reasons US education is "bad". All the years prior to university are much more important. Having gone through the system in "good" schools, I couldn't agree with the parent post more. However, none of it can begin until the generic stigma of "more education = bad" is destroyed (which probably first means destroying the one real thing that is fueling that image, which is the price of college and subsequent class warfare).
- goatherders 6y ago
  Thank you. I don't understand why my original comment is receiving a number of downvotes; the American public is wildly under-eductated considering the resources available.

gremlinsinc 6y ago

I think the two biggest problems are: 1. corruption in politics. (Revolving door, lobbyists, etc.. -- which creates the two problems you mentioned above). See: https://represent.us https://represent.us for examples. This should be a bi-partisan issue. 2. Two party system (fueled by the above), but if congress was partially filled by party preference we'd see a wider view. For example say a state gets 20 reps, well 10 of those are voted in, 10 are party preference (5% of vote or more). So say green party gets 20%, Libertarian 10%, Democrat 40%, GOP 30%. Green: 2, Libertarian: 1, Dem: 4, GOP: 3. Also moving to ranked choice voting would be nice. Not sure how the dynamics of the senate could be changed, except maybe instead of states we just cut the country into equal-sized geometric shapes and each 'shape' gets a senator. I also believe the house should be expanded per the constitution that calls for about 2500 based on current population. (1 per 100,000 pop). It'd make more jobs and give more people voices as well. Term limits would help too, maybe not permanent ones but make it so you can only be senator/congressman 1 term back-to-back. This also makes it so you're never 'campaigning' while 'working'. You'd sit out 4 years, then you could rotate back in (if you win). Supreme Court should also have term limits, and a dynamic #. Say each president coming in gets to pick 1-2 justices (to get an odd number, say one dies in October, and isn't replaced by inauguration...), each justice serves 10 years and then is up for re-election. I also think the house should pick 'contenders', then all of congress and the senate vote (by ranked choice), maybe the president's vote counts as 50, giving him a 'weighted' decision, but still there's more representation in the vote. If we could redo the constitution, these would be some things to make it more fair. imho.

goatherders 6y ago
As a former political scientist and political operative, I often wondered what would happen if members of congress received $10 million (or some "I am plenty rich") sum the moment they left office on the condition they could never have another job on their lives. How would behavior change? Who would run? Who would try to get reelected? Also thought that the converse would be an interesting case as well: once you leave congress any $ you make above, say, $150k a year is donated to charity or taxed at 100%.
- 6y ago