When it comes to America especially in my time in the legislative branch, I've come to the conclusion that the government, no matter what party you are, or who is running it, makes damn near everything worse. I find it funny that all of our problems that people are clamoring about, whether it be health care, social security, other social safety net programs, education, the wealth gap, etc, have ALL, been caused by the government.
I have no solutions. I may excel in quantifying statistical data to support arguments and also excel at researching certain things and translating them to English, and every non-biased source I can come across really points to the government.
@52520Andrew is absolutely correct. A moderate would be best for the country right now, but we haven't had a real moderate since JFK. Some will say Reagan and Clinton, and I agree with most people that they have been the two best Presidents the country has had since the 1980s based off of all the data(with H.W Bush being underrated, and Bush's second term is possibly the worst of any modern President). Reagan and Clinton knew how to reach across the aisle though, which was undoubtedly their greatest strength.
They got stuff done.
There's a couple of things here that have led to this entire downfall. There's a couple of solutions that should be able to fix the country, and it's up to the people. The government should not have to do everything.
1. It all starts with education for me. The previous two generations have been miseducated. It's the result of a lot of regulations from the government and the fact that intelligence isn't promoted in some cases but demeaned. As a current university student, I constantly get told, despite the fact that I have a good, well-paying job(in the long run) lined up for me after I graduate, that my major is "useless" (political science and business) and I should go STEM. The thing is, I like STEM, tech is the future, but just because your degree isn't STEM, doesn't mean your degree is useless. Believe me, useless degrees do exist(please explain to me what a gender studies major can go do besides be a gender studies professor, which starts a never-ending cycle of BS). People need to be encouraged to pursue sciences, and we need to go back to intellectualism. Being smart shouldn't be demeaned because a lot of people have different types of intelligence, whether it be scientific, or social, etc.
The government is a great example. I find it hilarious that so many people debate certain political issues having formerly worked for it. So many people have a schoolhouse rock idea of how the government works, and they think that the government is a complicated beast. It's not hard to understand, but you have to understand that it's really hard to get things done.
The modern AMERICAN college has a couple of good ideas, but they're implimenting it horribly. There are certain subjects that
should be mandatory in my eyes.
-Micro/Macroeconomics(teach people how the market itself works, and how taxes work, etc, etc)
-Intro American Politics(seriously, this should be mandatory, most people don't get it. The President isn't nearly as powerful as most think he is on a domestic scale. He's just a national embarrassment with his twitter account)
-Basic/Advance Writing and RHETORIC(I cannot stress the last part enough. The last part will teach people how to evaluate a news source so they can form their own opinions)
-Intro to computer science/data analytics
-American history(history is doomed to repeat itself if one never learns, see WW2, Vietnam, and the repeat of Vietnam, Iraq)
-An introductory math course(which is)
-Basic finance(which will teach people how to budget, etc. This class alone will solve a lot of problems)
Study what you want, yes, but people need to learn the foundations for how the system works before they enter it. Too many people are ignorant.
If I'm a computer science major, I should not have to take biology is my point. It's not gonna help me in the long-run. If it's interesting to me, I should take it as an elective. I should not have to take a gender politics class.
2. Secondly, with regards to education. The education system needs to stop patronizing us. I'm a political science major first, and you wouldn't believe how many of my classes here are useless opinions and talking points. This is guilty for the left and the right. Because college is painted as the end all be all, these kids are told
what to think rather than
how to think. This may not seem bad, you're in college, you're supposed to make stupid decisions(and believe me, I have), but this has screwed over the Millenials and it's about to screw over Gen Z. Schools should teach people how to think for themselves, not what to think.
3. I cannot stress this part enough. Encourage the growth of small businesses, and lay back on certain regulations. Yes, the banks screw them. You know why. Government has regulations. Now, without government intervention, the banks would still have rules. You'd need to have good credit, so on and so forth, I understand that, there's a lot of risk there. Most small businesses fail(the ones who come back a second and/or third times tend to succeed though. Yoda's right, the greatest teacher tends to be failure), but they open up a job market and help expand the middle class and they provide opportunity. Risky? Yes. Very. Hilariously risky. But too many are deterred from even starting one. Make it easier for them, and in the long-run the middle class will likely grow, which is the first step in a long-plan to solve the economic crisis.
4. This is where the fiscal conservative in me comes out. Continue to cut back on regulations on bigger businesses. Now I understand that certain regulations need to exist, I'm a moderate, not a libertarian. Anti-corruption ones, anti-discriminatory ones. Fine. I get that. The media has painted a picture that most of the CEOs will put the extra earnings in their pocket, which is simply untrue. Those CEOs that do that go to jail, because the SEC is good enough to catch most of them, and they go to jail for fraud. Their salaries do go up, but that's because most of them have stock options in the company, and the company is able to use this money to invest more(which usually creates more jobs in it of itself), or to expand(which usually creates more jobs). Now it shouldn't be
too drastic, the current right wants to cut regulations entirely, which will cause the U.S to go full capitlist... Which would cause our economy to collapse in on itself(capitalism isn't perfect, though it is the best system, which goes back to responsible capitalism. Our government focuses on enforcing the wrong regulations. That's my issue).
5. Going back to thinking for themselves. America needs to be vocal with the governmental issues we do have. And do so objectively. I worked for a legislator, every phone call that comes in is a bad one. Yelling at your Congressman/woman is not productive. Encourage a dialogue, and remind these people that they serve the public, not the other way around.
Example. There's roughly 50 or so bipartisan supported health care bills that have been stashed away. These bills would fix a lot of the problem the health care system has. They have bipartisan support. They provide a reasonable solution where the government and private enterprise can co-exist.
Nothing. The people in the government who think they're hot shit are ruining it for us all. They really need to educate themselves on who they're voting for beyond basic party lines. There are democrats who are insane yes, see AOC, Maxine Waters, Kamala Harris, etc, but there are also democrats who I like (Michael Bennet, Amy Klobuchar, Jared Polis). Same goes for republicans. It's the same.
Too many voters vote on party lines and generic platitudes. There are a lot of good solutions proposed by both sides that are flat-out ignored because the extremists in the office are power-hungry, and/or less-informed constituents force their elected officials to vote for something else.
6. Term limits need to be implemented. Career politicians are part of the downfall. Self-explanatory. The 22nd amendment wasn't passed because FDR was a democrat, most republicans liked FDR, and history has proven that he along with his successor were two of the top ten Presidents this country has ever had. A lot can change in 10 years. The world is radically different than it was 5 years ago. Having some of these guys be there for life, puts people in office who are senile(see Diane Feinstein, who is in her 80s, and is in the old woman yells at cloud phase of her political career), or people who are from a different era who only get reelected due to incumbency advantage.
TLDR: Miseducation is a problem. People need to learn how to think for themselves and evaluate sources. Big time regulations have proven in the past to kill economies, promote innovation, promote intelligence and intellectualism, and term limits.
This has to be done BY THE PEOPLE. Through voting, and proactivity. It won't be easy, but nothing in life worth having is easy. Nothing good comes to people who haven't sacrificed something, whether it be time, money, both.
You can disagree with me all you want. That's your prerogative, but I'm calling it as I see it. This country is miseducated, sometimes lazy, arrogant, complacent, and too many people don't know that they
can fix these problems.
We need to cut the crap and start holding the people in charge accountable, but we also need to take the bull by the horns and be proactive.
