This page is all about how to fix social issues that are causing so much pain across the US and the world. There is certainly no shortage of things we don’t like. There are plenty of problems that are causing so much pain and anger across the country. These issues all combine to create the incredibly hostile (and seemingly rapidly deteriorating) environment we are in.
But making socety better is not that hard. This page is all about how we can make society Less Bad for everyone.
A note about “sides”
This site is not for the left or the right. I try to be a reasonable person, and I’m doing my best to keep this site “moderate.” It’s difficult in this environment where we’re told there are two and only two sides, and that anyone who doesn’t fall in line behind one of the two extremes doesn’t count. Nevertheless I’m sympathetic to a lot (but certainly not all) of the grievances on both the left and the right.
This site is built with the hope that it is still possible to make progress toward a future that is better for everyone, regardless of their political leanings.
To that end, the topics covered are explored in a way I believe the majority of Americans (and really any reasonable person) would mostly agree with.
This page is one of four “hub” pages (the others being environment, business, and government), which I’m using to help organize all the pages on the site. Not everything (in fact almost nothing) fits neatly into the four hubs, but I think it’s useful to organize ideas into at least one, usually more, of these main categories.
“Society” is kind of a catch-all term here. You could argue that everything that deals with humanity can be categorized as societal, and I wouldn’t really disagree.
I’m certainly not doing a perfect job of classification, but that isn’t my goal. I’m trying to organize “stuff” into four buckets (society, business, government, and environment) just to make it more manageable.
As it relates to this site right now, social issues are those that don’t clearly fall into one of the other three buckets.
And of course there is a lot of overlap. For example, I’m putting education and health care into the societal bucket. These are both heavily influenced by government and business, but they fundamentally deal with how we function as a society.
Anyway, as I outlined in How to Solve Problems in Society and refer to throughout the site, this site’s problem-solving framework, how I think we can make things Less Bad, relies on four components:
- Problems – things we don’t like, things that are causing people to suffer
- Causes – What actions and incentives are causing those problems
- Goals – Thing we want, ideals to strive for
- Strategies – Ways to help us make progress toward those goals
Like the four other hub pages, this page breaks down social issues in terms of these four groupings. The hope is that by giving all these issues a little more structure it will be easier to break down and make progress.
Societal Problems
There is certainly plenty of room for improvement when looking at the world today.
Attempting to list all the problems in society right now is a bit of a fool’s errand. Everywhere you look there seems to be something else going haywire. But some problems are more evident than others. And I do believe that the 80 – 20 rule applies when it comes to how to fix society. That is that 80 percent of the problems are caused by 20 percent of the causes. So we don’t necessarily need to list out every last problem to address it.
If we start with the big societal problems and address those, there will be trickle-down improvements across all kinds of areas. Like everything on this site, this list will be improved and expanded upon, but for now here are what I’ve identified as some of the most important problems facing the US and the world right now.
A Future Hellscape
America’s Top Issues
Are We Headed for Another World War?
Crime and Violence
Division Like Crazy!
Drug Addiction
Inequality
So Much Anger
The Health Care Crisis
The High Cost of Living
The Middle Class is Getting Squeezed
The Plastic Island is an Embarrassment
We’re Fucking Over the Monkeys – And Everything Else
}end social problems.//
Causes of the Problems in Society
There are all kinds of causes of the problems above. Some are historical, some deal with incentives, some are influenced by human biology.
Considering that each of the problems has multiple causes, i.e. things that are affecting it, the list of causes or reasons for social problems could be endless. But again, we don’t need to list every last cause, because there are a few that play an oversized role.
Here are some of the causes that have the biggest impact on contributing to our many social problems.
An Inept, Lazy and Compromised Media
Are We Even Here?
Extrepublicrats – Causing All the Trouble
Human Nature
Incentives
Irresponsible Corporations
Lack of awareness
Nobody leaves money on the table
Overpopulation – From One Billion to Nine Billion
Polarization
Pollution Is Killing Everything
Rising Inequality – Enough is Enough
So. Much. Waste.
The Developed World is Aging
The Leadership Vacuum: Our Politicians are Worthless and the Media Lies
Vicious Cycles: Escaping the Cycle of Failure
We Only Do Things That Make Money
Who Are We? An Inquiry into the Existence and Purpose of Human Beings
Societal Goals
Like most of the goals on this site, the ones below are purposely nebulous in that they don’t have specific metrics or numbers attached to them. At some point in the future maybe I’ll have the resources and need to come up with more definite goals. But in general it comes down to the more the better. After all, all we’re doing is trying to make things Less Bad.
While perhaps (ok definitely) a bit unreasonable, I think a goal of the human race should be to promote universal happiness. Many philosophers throughout time have said that suffering is inevitable. Some even say that being human is synonymous with suffering. I don’t know if it will ever be possible to eliminate human suffering – or that we’d even want to).
But we can certainly lessen suffering. There is a difference between slowly watching your children starve to death and feeling anxiety about interacting with someone at the store (the so-called “first world problems”). The goals below are my attempt at identifying what would do the most to make most people’s lives better.
Ambitious goals we want for society:
A Better Country
A Better Future
A Competitive Marketplace
A Healthy Planet
Competent Leaders
Healthy People – Building a Stronger Nation
Real News: Unbiased Sources of Information
Strong Communities
The Circular Economy
Transparency
World Peace – Is It Impossible?
Strategies for Making Society Better
When attempting to identify what problems are most important or pressing, and therefore what strategies are most powerful, there is an interesting phenomenon at play. Most of us deal with this issue on a regular if not daily basis – that the bigger the problem, the harder it is to solve, and vice versa.
For that reason, I think it’s important to focus on both, with a concerted effort to understand the biggest leverage points. Where can we have the biggest positive impact?
At the same time there are smaller, more reasonable strategies. Areas where we can make more progress, faster. As the site (hopefully!) grows and evolves I’ll do a better job of examining goals in terms of their feasibility and impact.
For now, we’ve gotta start somewhere.
Here are some steps we can take to reach our societal goals:
A Four-Day Workweek
AI – The Path To Sentience
Artificial Intelligence – Is It the Answer?
Being Constructive: How to Move Forward
Build on What Exists
Champion Honest Pay
Close the Carried Interest Loophole
Cooperation: The Way to Go
Data Science and Its Ability to Help Further Progress
DNA Sequencing: Unlocking the Secrets of Life
Embrace Innovation
Fixing the World: The Ultimate Guide
Follow the Golden Rule
Force Multipliers: Turbo-charging Societal Progress:
Give People Meaning
How to Change the World
How to Solve Problems in Society
Impact Consumerism
Improving Education
Include True Costs in Prices
Increase the Inheritance Tax
Increasing Accountability: How to Hold the Powerful Responsible
Legal Reform
Making Progress: The Only Way
Measuring Twice and Collapsing Superposition
Prioritize Human Flourishing
Promoting the Common Good
Promoting Upward Mobility: The Key to the American Dream
Reduce Health Care Cost
Reduce Traffic
Reform the Finance Industry
Reward “Good” Work
Taking Personal Responsibility
The Great Machine
The Humanity Index
The Rise of Impact Consumersim
The Secondhand Economy
The Simple Solution to All Our Problems
Universal Basic Income: Game-Changer Policy or Pipe Dream?
Value-Based Care Can Remake the Health Care System
Virtuous Cycles Can Solve All Global Challenges
What Are We Going to Do?
As you can probably gather this site is still very much in its infancy. Stay tuned to learn what we’re doing to make things Less Bad.