The Single Greatest Problem in America Today Is _____________.
Casey ·
February 28, 2012 at 4:19pm
Fill in the blank and explain.
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Comments:
Mar '11
Re: The Single Greatest Problem in America Today Is _____________.
Fill in the blank questions. Because I always do better on multiple choice.
I like thelonious' answer of "entrenched interests" better than "crony capitalism," which was my first response. "Rent seekers" works too.
Jun '11
Re: The Single Greatest Problem in America Today Is _____________.
~Paules: Barrack Hussein Obama . . . ding! ding! ding!
Alex, I'll take Politically Correct Speech for a hundred please. · 50 minutes ago
I think we make a mistake when we lay all of the problems at the feet of the current occupant of the White House. He is a man of the Left, but it is Leftism that is killing us. We have to begin systematically removing it root and branch from the institutions I mentioned above. Simply voting President Obama out of office will not change the ugliness of these institutions.
May '11
Re: The Single Greatest Problem in America Today Is _____________.
The size of the Federal government.
Some people here are giving examples of declines in individual responsibility and character, and they have a point, but I'd suggest that huge government programmes are the cause rather than a symptom.
I don't think human nature has changed, or ever will change. If you tell people they can have something at someone else's expense they'll take it, and adjust their own behaviour accordingly.
Re: The Single Greatest Problem in America Today Is _____________.
Money-printing by the Federal Reserve. All your other problems spring from this: it enables the continual expansion of government (even under notionally conservative administrations) and stokes burgeoning welfare/entitlement culture.
Sep '10
Re: The Single Greatest Problem in America Today Is _____________.
The biggest problem is the legal/regulatory state that fosters disrespect for law and produces a mindset that legality is what you can get away with if you payoff the right crowd and tie the system up. The second biggest is the desire for communitarian social justice.
May '10
Re: The Single Greatest Problem in America Today Is _____________.
Political courage when the nation needs leadership. (Paul Ryan, I'm looking at you)
Feb '12
Re: The Single Greatest Problem in America Today Is _____________.
Decline in faith and responsibility----they're intertwined, I think.
Feb '11
Re: The Single Greatest Problem in America Today Is _____________.
Most of the above.
Oct '10
Re: The Single Greatest Problem in America Today Is _____________.
Not the greatest single problem in my estimation, but certainly high enough in the running to be mentioned.
Nov '11
Re: The Single Greatest Problem in America Today Is _____________.
A sense of entitlement.
Too many people think they are due something for being themselves: money, success, a family, fame, etc. Not enough people realize they have to earn those things.
Jan '11
Re: The Single Greatest Problem in America Today Is _____________.
Too many people disdain market outcomes and have no stomach to appreciate individual liberty [liberty; with standard qualifiers such as this one].
Apr '11
Re: The Single Greatest Problem in America Today Is _____________.
Conscious Stupidity
One example would be the President's most recent energy speech.
Nov '11
Re: The Single Greatest Problem in America Today Is _____________.
All regimes, including ours, exist in a state of some tension. In our regime, I would argue, that tension is between liberty and equality. This tension works if the two are in balance. Currently equality has largely been denigrated to "equality of outcome," and so liberty is in danger of being extinguished.
Dec '11
Re: The Single Greatest Problem in America Today Is _____________.
The notion that one has an implicit or explicit right to a portion of someone else's life.
That is the root of all social, economic and political sins.
Edited on February 28, 2012 at 6:33pmApr '11
Re: The Single Greatest Problem in America Today Is _____________.
The biggest problem in America is a plateauing of economic growth and job creation.
We are going down the route of slow growth and high unemployment of Japan and Europe...this will only push people to want more Government help and it will mean the government can never raise the money to provide it . If we had the Economic growth of the 50 and 60 or even 80's we would be in better shape...I don't know any government program can actually give us that kind of economic growth again.
Feb '12
Re: The Single Greatest Problem in America Today Is _____________.
The loss of individual freedom vs an all powerful, smothering state. People don't even realize they have individual freedoms under the Constitution any more. The idea that the state can tell them what light bulbs they can have is perfectly reasonable to some people. There's no concept that they can push back on anything the state dictates.
Dec '11
Re: The Single Greatest Problem in America Today Is _____________.
Personal Responsibilty -- The individual is not responsible for themselves or their family anymore. Government, parents, neighbors, churches and the rich should take care of us seems to be the mantra of the day. Tom Roberts is correct that this is aided and abetted by the size of Federal Government.
If every person was responsible for putting food on the table and their own future, would we need welfare, medicaid, medicare, social security, AFDC and the multitude of other programs at the same level they are now or projected to be in the future.
This would kick start growth and many other positive changes in my opinion.
Aug '11
Re: The Single Greatest Problem in America Today Is _____________.
The Niggling - Its on the right, the left, business, and government. Everyone is convinced that a "perfect" society can be achieved by a list of little economic incentives which in the end only make life more annoying and coarse. Want to save on jet fuel? Make people pay for the privilege of eating airline food. Want people to use canvas grocery bags? Charge them a nickle a bag. Want to use less energy? Make people pay 50 cents more a light bulb for a curly one. Water? Lower-flow toilets. People getting lost? Mandatory new "readable" signs. Costly to clean toilets? No public restroom. Offended by the smell of smoke in the park? No smoking in public areas. The list goes on...
May '10
Re: The Single Greatest Problem in America Today Is _____________.
Progressivism/Liberalism. Progress is Providence without God. That is, it is a theory that everything has always perpetually gone right by accident. It is a sort of atheistic optimism, based on an everlasting coincidence far more miraculous than a miracle. ... Gilbert Keith Chesterton (1874-1936)
Feb '11
Re: The Single Greatest Problem in America Today Is _____________.
Moral Relativism - because when we all make our own rules, and define our own "truth", anything goes. And it does