39. What do you consider the six most important problems facing this
country and the world today?
H and R are combined here. The printed survey has a long discussion, but there is more to say.
Diverse answers were consolidated using a common terminology, trying to group similar answers to find
common concerns despite using different words. The 32 most common answers are in the printed survey
at item 39. Table, Most Important Problems. That left 346 answers in 160 categories. The open ended
approach got answers close to each respondents thinking, but at the cost of a more focused choice of top
problems. A more focused choice would get more focus but at the cost of individuality. It might have
helped to ask for “policy problems,” which was the intent, not just “problems.”
The answers suggest an additional problem, a lack of agreement about the problems.
Fell swoop
It seemed to me that 249 answers in the 108 categories below were concepts that were vague,
unclear or not very amendable to public policy as I understand it.
Here they all are, in one long, fell swoop of bullets, better scanned than read! Categories which were
chosen 5 or more times are indicated:
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American popular culture, celebrity mania, $$, materialism, consumption, advertising, violence in
media (35)
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anger, aggressiveness
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attitudes of institutions like Harvard
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balance of liberty and order
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bankruptcy of free enterprise system
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bigger problems in a smaller world
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bureaucracy
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capitalism
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career choices
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citizen disengagement
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civility, compromise, and knowledge in policy making
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clash of civilizations
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common good
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complacency
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cooperation
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creeping despotism
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critical thinking
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cruelty
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culture shock
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decline of the west/USA/ democracy/pride/dollar/confidence/conversation/self-reliance/community (14)
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denial and oversimplification of problems
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dishonesty
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distraction
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easy answers
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election cycle
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electoral politics
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envy, international rivalry
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equality and respect
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excessive expectations worldwide
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fallenness of human beings and the world
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fear itself
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find a home elsewhere in the universe
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focus on social issues, not national concerns
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fragmented institutions
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global strife
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governmental waste
greed (11)
growth
homogeneity
honesty, trust
hubris
human nature
idiocracy
ignorance (14)
immaturity
inclusiveness
injustice
lack of community
lack of courage
lack of direction
lack of faith in god and human goodness
lack of imagination
lack of mature, independent thought
laziness
liberalism
media fear mongering
media reporting
mindless support of "diversity"
moderate republicans
moral relativism
morality (7)
multiculturalism
multitude of languages
mutual mistrust
mutual racial segregation
national community
national insecurity
not accepting different political systems
oligarchy
opportunity costs
over-reliance on government
over-reliance on technology
pathological individualism
peace
personal accountability
personal integrity/responsibility
political apathy and ignorance
political and economic change
political correctness (5)
political ideals
political strife
political systems
polls and surveys with little follow-through
poor leadership (many different words for personal failings), 36)
poverty as possible for all of us.
preservation of our institutions
progressive ideology
public apathy
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public confusion
questionnaires like this one
Red Sox
respect and compassion for other people.
rise of new centers of wealth and power
security
self-esteem
selfishness and greed (5)
sharing
short term thinking
superstitions
technology worship
too many have-nots
uninformed electorate
unrealizable expectations
unwillingness to work
violence
war (11)
work ethic
working together as communities and nations.
97 answers
If you’ve survived that, we come to 97 answers mentioning 52 policy problems, sometimes just
different enough, or chosen too few times, so they did not make the man list. I grouped them thus:
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budget: government budgeting, excess spending, high taxes, state budgets, tax and spend, conflict
between benefits and reduced expenditures
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domestic economy: financial regulation, GDP thinking, housing mortgages, inner city, old industry,
over-regulation, personal debt, planning, pressure on execs for short term profits, resistance to
globalization, Retirement planning, socialism, student debt, support for entrepreneurs
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education: civic education, youth military or social service, youth don't study
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environment: biodiversty, natural resources
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health: against Obamacare, elder care, guns, obesity
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international and military: biological weapons, EU financial governance, genocide, knowledge of
foreign cultures, issues, Pakistan, unrest in Portugal-Italy-Ireland-Greece-Spain, Japanese economy,
world-wide worker-farmer movement, international governance, Mexico, national defense, Neglect of
military by other democracies, Berlusconi
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social: Creating opportunity for people lacking it, criminal enterprises, cyber-attacks, information
technology, drug policy, opportunity for women, over-incarceration, poverty hopelessness violence
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structure: need 4 year terms in Congress, redistricting, separation of church and state, Supreme
Court, Citizens United. (“Structure” are policy issues about the rules for making policy.)
Comments with editor’s comments
“GDP thinking.” Over-use of money to measure well-being, excluding equity and environmental
factors, not only in GDP-related reporting, but also in cost-benefit analysis, elasticity comparisons,
computer modeling, and, more broadly, in social thought and culture.
“Resistance to globalization.” Not clear if respondent means there is too much or too little. Capital
and trade have been globalized, but not the policies protecting consumers, workers and the environment.
Trade is more free but not fair. Mexican corn farmers, for example, have lost out to subsidized imports
from the US, often pushing them to migrate illegally to the US. The costs of globalization have been
higher in the US than in Europe and other advanced democracies which have a more social democracy
(see www.internationalcomparison.org/). Some elites would resist globalization of social protections, but
this is not the probable meaning of the respondents. Evaluations of globalization are mostly by those with
a bias pro or con; it is hard to find a good balanced summary assessment.
“Civic education.” See Strategic Vision by Zbigniew Brzezinski. He confirms the appalling lack of
knowledge of the average American, which is the basis for US policy failures across a wide range of
issues, as ideologically motivated political leaders exploit fears and misconceptions. I see this as a policy
problem, but I don’t see any effective policy to deal with it. The time lag between misleading statements
about Afghanistan by Bush, Obama, and the military, and the percolation of information from the field
back into the country is, as it was in Vietnam, too slow.
“Japanese economy.” This probably refers to the American elite perception of it. The Japanese
economy has outperformed the US economy even during its “slump,” if the correct yardsticks are used
(see www.internationalcomparison.org/).
“Parenting.” This problem, unlike the above, made it into the printed report. The explosion of
knowledge about the development of the human brain has been absolutely astounding. Our classmate,
Andrew Biemiller, has contributed greatly to the understanding of language acquisition. We are beginning
to define the various parts of the brain, their unconscious working, their integration into consciousness,
the nature of socialization and skill development in the growing brain of first five years, how culture can
override reason and compromise in adults, and the ways in which evolution shapes our early
development as it warps us away from chimps and bonobos. We can put a lace cap with electrodes glued
with baby shampoo on an infant skull and see what is happening inside the brain. In the last ten years we
have learned more than in all of previous human history, and we come back to the overwhelming
importance of love, nurturance, and stimulation in developing human potential. Policies are being
developed to work with parents to help them understand, building on Dr. Spock, how their children grow
and how to enrich their development. The debate has hardly begun.