Fixing America’s problems (part three)

Obviously there are many more American problems that remain to be fixed. This said, I see the first one we discussed as the screen that hides the rest of the problems we must wrestle with. On the economic front there is the widespread income inequality and wealth gap that has been widening for decades, hindering economic mobility and threatening social unrest. 

Then there’s a crying need for affordable healthcare that consumes almost 18% of our GDP with a huge cost of medical care and lack of good insurance for all. Our national debt and budget deficit are also terrifying, creating long-term economic uncertainty and tying up the government’s hands. If we look at the social landscape, our politics under Trump have become sick, polarized and overly partisan, creating a widespread national discord. 

There’s of course America’s gun violence and mass shootings with 400 million guns for 350 million people. A daily mass shooting seems a small price to pay for maintaining an anachronistic second amendment! All this takes place on a background of racial and ethnic inequities that stubbornly don’t want to go away and poison American society.

We are also left with a climate change and environmental degradation that were largely responsible for, but that too many American chose to ignore. Its increasing consequences of climate change, such as extreme weather events and rising sea levels, pose major environmental and economic challenges. 

We talked yesterday about education. My countrymen don’t take full advantage of it, but remain unequal and not adequately funded. Drug addiction and mental health are other issues that need fixing along with a still crumbling, old and obsolete infrastructure. This, as you can see, is a long, long list. 

Tomorrow, I’ll share my conclusions, but will have few remedies to offer…