America’s #1 Problem
So I have to write an essay for “American Society”. The topic? America’s biggest problem. I am currently in the ‘brainstorm phase’: just thinking about this topic and trying to come up with a satisfactory answer to the question: what is America’s biggest problem and why?
Because most of you are Americans I thought that it might be useful to have some input from all of you and I am hoping that (at least some of) you all would be willing to drop some ideas about this in the comment section of this thread and hopefully a great debate will develop as well / at the same time.
The question I pose to you is: what is – in your opinion – America’s biggest problem and why?
P.S. It can be political, it can be economical, social, racial. It can be ‘foreign policy’, etc.
59 Responses to “America’s #1 Problem”
Ryan,
Oh sure! And then you name off a bunch of utterly superficial influences that Germans and the Irish have contributed to American culture. Impressive. That is like saying that Mexicans have had a massive influence on the fundamental character and psychology of the United States because of the burrito. I think you have a very negligle understanding of cultural differences and cultural influences if the best you can come up with, in terms of contributions, is new food items to add to the national cuisine.
And as I’ve already mentioned, this wave of Hispanic immigrants is not replicating trends in previous waves of immigration in such critical areas as education. People like you have absolutely no answers as to what to do about that other than attempt to reassure us that somehow, some way, things will work out in the end – even with nonstop immigration from the Third World.
If you think that increasingly mirroring Third World educational performance is going to maintain us as a First World superpower, then I have oceanfront property in Nebraska you might be interested in purchasing.
“negligle”
Sorry. I meant negligible.
Tommy, I only picked the most obvious of the influences. Just come to Milwaukee and you’ll see a lot of German and Irish culture very much alive and well. From entertainment to family and community interactions to weekend gatherings and pretty much everything else. I also find it interesting that people are so afraid of Hispanic culture but I never hear a word about southeast Asian culture influencing America.
Of course, a person who’s more interested in throwing around personal insults than actually debating may have trouble comprehending how points can be made in debate without going into detail of how every single influence is felt.
As an aside, I don’t debate with people who feel the need to throw around personal insults. People who do such things are usually those who realize they are wrong and think they can “win” by throwing mud. Once the mud flies, I’m done.
Meanwhile, back to the topic of the post…
I hope that MvdG will come back and tell us what he chose for the theme of his paper.
I’m not afraid of Hispanic “culture,” I’m afraid of low educational attainment and lack of the sort of distribution of skills needed to maintain a First World society.
I think your points are very shallow. No personal insult intended.
Let me give you just one example of why we are fortunate to live in a society that generally follows the more analytical English approach to things as opposed to, for example, the French approach to things. I think Sailer touches upon the whole French obsession with absurd philosophical schools like existentialism. The French think of man as something apart from nature itself.
Well- I have a tie- one foreign and one domestic.
Our biggest problem domestically is our polarization. Many in this country hate the opposition party almost as much as the terrorists. Our politics gets nastier every year, and hate-filled books become instant bestsellers. This lack of unity distracts us from dealing with our very real problems that we are facing- global warming, expanding terrorism, corrupt and broken government, aging infrastructure and a failing health system. Moderates who have the nerve to vote their conciences soon find themselves at odds with their party leaders, and are slowly being expunged from the system.
America faces its biggest threat from rogue states who won’t abide by the NPT and who have snubbed the IAEA inspectors. North Korea is reaching out to our other enemies- Iran, Syria, Venezuela, and may very well begin exporting nuclear technology-unless the sanctions work. The chance of failure is enormous, as is the potential consequences.
C.S. I will. I still have a lot of time so I am also combining possible subjects with the question “how many academic researches / articles / books can I find about this particular subject”. Which is of course purely a practical matter. You all have some great views. When I decide what I will write about, I will let you all know and publish a post about it here at TMV.
Do you think closing our borders will help us maintain superpower status? Name one country with and isolationist government which maintained its international influence. China and Japan both seem like good historical examples of the stagnation which can occur if you suddenly try to protect your ‘culture’ by shutting down your borders.
Also, in your anti-immigration philosophy, where do we get the cheap labor which allows us to keep inflation down in this country? If there aren’t people coming in to take the jobs you have 3 choices: Lower American’s pay. This wouldn’t lead to inflation in Current Dollars but it would lead to inflation in terms of buying power. Raise minimum wage to make it reflect a standard of living we want most Americans to have. You get inflation. Finally, ship the jobs overseas. Now, we have all the problems of “immigrants are taking our jobs” except that the money doesn’t even stay in our economy, its shipped overseas with the jobs. Until the anti-immigration group can get around these fundamental economic concerns they will be trapped in cultural narcissism.
Attempting to curb immigration will turn us into a third world country much faster than the current system.
On the lighter side, MvdG, I finally found out what’s really ruining America.