
It often seems like humans have fucked up the world beyond repair.
It’s a scary world, and thinking about the future can be all but debilitating.
It’s easy to be depressed.
But what good is that?
A bad attitude doesn’t help anyone.
The alternative is to have a little faith. Not blind faith. Faith based on realistic optimism.
Nobody can deny that when push comes to shove, humans are capable of incredible things.
Yes, we do all kinds of horrible things.
But we also do amazing things.
With real determination, the world could be so much better. If we set our minds to it, the potential of our species and world is limitless.
I’d rather live in a better world than a worse one. I imagine that’s the case for you too.
Right now our trajectory seems to be declining. But it doesn’t have to be that way.
There’s little doubt that a better world is possible.
So this article is more of a starting point to explore that concept.
If we were serious about creating a better world, what would we do?
There’s almost an unlimited number of issues to deal with. We clearly can’t do them all at once.
I’ve chosen these top strategies to fix the world because they represent the most powerful ways to make everything else easier. As we make progress in these areas, reaching our big, collective goals becomes more likely.
In many cases, these “solutions” are just strategies to get out of our own way. To tear down the unnecessary but crippling obstacles we’ve placed in front of us.
And keep in mind this is my first attempt at this, I’m open to suggestions!
So here we go, the ten most powerful ways to improve the world.
Get the Money Out of Government

Lobbying has replaced representative democracy as the driving force of government decision-making. We must be honest with ourselves: lobbying by people and industries that have the most money is the opposite of the spirit of Democracy.
Our government has ossified, trapped in gridlock, for the simple reason that the powerful like it that way. The laws are mostly written in darkness by corporate lobbyists. When bills are thousands of pages of legal jargon, obviously individual politicians and their staff do not know what is in the bills.
Corporations run the show.
The only way to restore accountability to our government and ensure that those in power prioritize the will of the people is to make them answer to us, not donors. The money is preventing us from removing lousy politicians. Once a person is elected, they tend to stay there.
Candidates should run on platforms that represent the best interests of their constituents, and follow through on those promises when they are elected. This is the way Democracy is supposed to work. Nobody can argue it is working that way now.
We can no longer allow politicians to be bought. The laws should not be written by lobbyists.
I’m not a big believer in the government being able to solve all our problems, but it has a role to play. And it certainly shouldn’t be making things harder.
We need citizens to be represented — not those with the deepest pockets.
Increase Transparency
A simple but often overlooked strategy to solve any problem is to increase transparency.
When negotiations take place in darkness, we can’t know if the collective good is being represented. We can’t help but interpret backroom dealing with suspicion. That suspicion is often justified.
Transparency leads to accountability, creating a tangible sense of honesty and trust.
It offers a clearer view of reality, allowing us to draw on the facts for more effective decision-making. By increasing transparency in the government, the private sector, and society in general, we promote understanding and facilitate meaningful progress.
It comes down to accountability – if you do something good, or bad, you should be held responsible. Right now that is too often impossible. More transparency helps us move in that direction.
Create a Circular Economy
Many people have serious concerns about the long-term viability of the planet. Despite some disagreement about the causes and effects, most of us don’t want humans destroying the planet beyond repair. To that end, sustainability and the efficient use of resources have become key considerations for many people and corporations.
There are enough resources on the planet for us to reach our ultimate goals. We just need to use them the right way.
Creating a circular economy is one way to help move towards sustainability goals. With this kind of system, products are reused, reducing waste. Their end-of-life cycle is an integral part of product design. Corporations would be responsible for ensuring their products don’t end up in the environment, but rather are recycled as much as possible.
A circular economy results in extracting fewer resources from the planet, and less pollution in the ground, the ocean, and the air.
Reduce the Federal Debt

The $262 billion federal debt is a major problem facing our nation. We’re wasting too much of our collective productivity paying interest.
The money we all pay for interest payments goes to banks and investors, who already have money. Many of those beneficiaries are foreign governments.
- In 2022, the government paid the ± 3,000 largest banks in the country about $7.53 billion damn dollars in interest payments.
- We paid ± $223 billion in interest payments to foreign holders of U.S. Treasury securities1both these numbers came from Open AI, so they might not be exact… but you get the idea. No surprise that government doesn’t go out of its way to make this information available or accessible.
Is this really what we want to be doing with our tax dollars?
By reducing what we piss away on interest, we can use that money more productively. With any luck, we can even lower taxes!
Reduce the Cost of Health Care

The healthcare crisis is a weight around our collective neck that is dragging the whole country down. As individuals, businesses, and government, we are spending way too much on health care that doesn’t make people healthy.
And it’s only going to get worse as baby boomers age.
A total overhaul of the healthcare industry is in order. I believe everyone should have access to care and a doctor, but we just can’t plow even more money into a broken system. We’ve got to control costs and improve results.
Reduce Polarization

We live in angry times.
We’re told the entire population lives in two, and only two, distinct camps, and that there’s no way to bridge the divide. Our politicians and media try to pound this division into our collective mind every second of every day.
But this simply isn’t true – and it’s a dangerous thought. Beneath the surface of our polarized debates lies a shared commitment to a better world.
We need people to come together, find common ground and start working on solutions. It all starts with respectful dialogue – not just between political parties or ideological groups, but between humans. We need to stop listening to people sowing division and concentrate on what’s important.
We must redirect the energy we currently waste on needless arguments and distractions that further divide us and use it to make meaningful progress.
Reform the Media
The media plays a crucial role in our society, one that should not be taken lightly. The anger and division paralyzing the country are a direct result of the corporate media and the politicians they are in bed with.
Without accountability, trust, and a representation of reality, we can’t create the informed electorate required for a flourishing democracy. This broken news media makes it harder to go about daily life, make informed decisions, to take part in the community
That is why reforming the media is necessary; without real journalism, Democracy can’t exist. It’s time to end the maze of misinformation stopping us from moving forward.
Strengthen Communities

Everything starts at the local level. Education, consumption, activism, joy, and happiness, all happen where people live. Stronger, cooperative, functional local communities have a bottom-up effect on making everything better. Better towns lead to better counties or districts, leads to better states, leads to a better country. Cooperation at all levels of society strengthens communities and provides a pathway forward.
By taking a local and bottom-up approach, people can benefit from the wisdom and experience of their neighbors to create something bigger than themselves.
Improve Education
While the effects aren’t felt for many years, better education is what will ensure the future is better than the present. Educating the youth is perhaps the most important function of the government, and the education system needs improvement.
Education changes lives and tilts the game of upwards mobility. With the right approaches, it can empower individuals to be prepared for a modern world and meet tomorrow’s needs with constructive outcomes. It makes our population more productive, competitive, and fulfilled. It moves people upward to a better life.
If we care about the future, a good education system is the best investment we can make as a country.
A Constructive Private Sector
To truly solve the greatest problems of our time, we have to do a better job of getting more use from the private sector.
The free market is perhaps the most powerful tool humans have created to affect change. But we’re not leveraging it in a way that benefits everyone.
We use so much of our national talent helping companies usurp our attention, distract and divide us, and sell us shit we don’t need.
Corporate owners have sat on the sidelines counting their money for too long. So much of the power of the free market is being used to make rich people richer. I don’t have a problem with people making money, even a lot of it. But the bulk of the proceeds of the free market can’t keep going to fewer and fewer people.
Corporations need to do right by those whose work makes their businesses successful – paying fair wages, giving adequate benefits, and providing safe working conditions. They should be investing in productive, helpful research, not finding ways to squeeze more pennies from people who don’t have them. They need to be honest and up-front about the political donations, their impact on the environment, their impact on race, inequality, upward mobility, and the other vital issues of the day.
We need the private sector more involved in helping us reach our collective goals. Corporations should be using their considerable power and influence to promote the common good, not exploiting workers and consumers and worsening inequality.
The private sector should be lifting all of us, not just the wealthy.
Easy Peasy, Lemon Squeezy
So there you have it. Ten strategies I think have the power to drastically improve our chances of building a thriving, purposeful world where everyone has equal access to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.
I know what you’re thinking… But what about X?! What about hunger, crime, racism, child care, the elderly, inequality, financial fraud, and on and on? This is a blog post where I attempted to identify the ten most powerful “levers” we could pull to make the most progress the fastest. I believe that carrying out the strategies above makes everything else easier.
It’s more of a thought exercise than a set-in-stone roadmap. It would be a bit silly to think I’d get it all perfect in one go.
There are monumental steps to take before society can be brought into harmony. Drawing from a mixture of economic policies, community building, and accountability, government transparency and efficiency should be a common goal for all citizens.
We may not be able to single-handedly save the world in one day.
But everyone can do their part by researching and embracing the strategies outlined within this blog post. It will require creative thinking, cooperation between citizens and legislators, and an open mind across different disciplines to bring about true transformation within any system.
It all depends on us – our motivation and ability to collaborate, share knowledge and work together toward collective success.
What do you think?
What did I miss?
Do you have a better idea?
Would you eliminate one of these with another?
Help me make this better! Take the survey and let me know what you think.
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