Browsing social media, it’s apparent that people are quick to point out problems in the world, but what I see less often are suggestions for how to solve them. At best, I see vague ideas that might solve one issue but introduce new ones, which are rarely addressed.
Simply stopping the bad behaviour rarely is a solution in itself. The world is not that simple. Take something like drug addiction. Telling someone to just stop taking drugs is not a solution.
There are many congressional solutions to many of the things im vocal about. ending citizens united and making it clear rights are for living being people only (you know sort enshiring the idea the governement is from the people and for the people), medicare for all but improved, creating higher income tax brackets that go up to a billion and recognize all things as income so basically getting rid of capital gains, breaking up monopolies and regulating businesses, there is a lot.
End capitalism before it ends humanity.
You want a realistic solution or a “if I had one wish” solution?
If every US Republican were to die of a heart attack right now, that would probably be the single greatest thing that could happen to our planet right now.
We’re too many humans for what the planet is able to sustain, we need to reduce our use of resources but we also need to be fewer than 8 billions
Overpopulation is something that’ll take care of itself over the next 50 years or so. The more immediate issue is to figure out who will pay the pensions of the aging population.
No, it’s not. Social security is not a failing program.
Yes it is when there’s more people receiving those payments than working. The money has to come from somewhere.
That’s a simplistic reduction. They’ve been saying it’s going to run out for 30 years.
The meat and dairy industry receives vast amounts of subsidies which would be better allocated to plant based food sources. Meat is an inefficient way to feed the general population. I’m vocal about this because of two reasons: animal suffering and climate/pollution.
I’m not naive enough to say we should just cut subsidies to animal farming cold turkey, because I understand people’s livelyhoods depend on it. But I would want to see a progressive public divestment from meat in favour of plant based whole food proteins (not fake/lab meats, those can survive on private investment alone).
And vertical farms.
If lab grown meat becomes cheaper than “real” meat while keeping the taste and texture of it or even improve on that, I can totally see that replacing factory farmed meat rather quickly. It’s like with electric cars; people don’t switch if we force / shame them to do so but they will once those vehicles became better than the dirty alternative.
But my point is that we are keeping meat artificially cheap with lots of subsidies. Meat would be a luxury food if people paid the real cost of it, let alone if we paid the long term costs on the environment. I think maybe your analogy would be better with bicycles than electric cars. Bikes are more versatile and convenient than cars in short distances (10km), but most cities have been and continue being developed as car centric. If we used taxes to improve bike infrastructure, people would feel safer to ride bikes more often.
At the same time, I’m also vocal about fixing farming. We need to stop destroying nature to grow food. Fortunately the divestment from animal farming will already significantly improve this because it’s more efficient to eat soy directly than to grow soy, feed it to pigs, and then eat the pig. However we need to fix monocultures by moving to regenerative farming and agroforestry.
If i sit or stand somewhere, i spray smokers a gust of water on their cancer-sticks, extinguishing the bad thing i am allergic to and eliminating this disgusting smell.
Big corporations begging taxpayer bailouts and then using them on bonuses and dividends. It’s a humongous waste of money that does nothing but enrich the wealthy. Most of the time it doesn’t even save jobs.
If, as a large corporate, you want a bailout from the taxpayer, then the government/state will take a portion of your shares in escrow, equivalent in value to the amount of money you’re asking for or getting. Those shares (in case of publicly traded companies) are withdrawn from the stock market, become non-voting shares and are frozen at their price at that time. Within a to-be-determined time period (five years maybe) the corporation, if it gets profitable again, can buy back all or part of the shares from the government at that price per share - thus returning money to the taxpayer. Anything that’s left after five years, the government can do with as it sees fit - sell them at market price (thus recovering the spent money), or keep them use them to vote/control the company.
There probably is a lot wrong with this proposal. But something needs to be done to discourage big business from hoovering up taxpayer money like it’s going out of fashion. Most of the time the taxpayer is getting absolutely no value from that spend.
No bailouts without an equivalent equity transfer to the public. If you want a bailout you need to grant the same amount of stock to the government in exchange.
Isn’t that pretty much the short version of what I said?
If bringing food to people is so hard, why not bring people to the food? 🤷🏻♂️
The only solution to car traffic is building viable alternatives to driving. Alternatives also bring many environmental and societal benefits.
That’s rather vague “solution”
What are the alternatives?
Fast & frequent public transport, safe cycling infrastructure, footpaths, just putting things closer together to reduce the need for transport
Is the issue here traffic or cars?
Because for traffic I can see how working public transit would atleast ease of the issue, but for the anti-car sentiment I often see here I don’t view public transit as a solution. Not to every car owner atleast.
What’s the difference?
Anti car doesn’t mean completely banning cars. Nobody is saying to replace ambulances with bus trips. There’s obviously a need and cars would be much more effective for those things if the roads weren’t clogged with people who don’t have a need.
Cars are not inherently bad, they are being utilized poorly. In dense urban areas, private cars are the worst option in terms of efficiency. However, currently in many cities it’s also the best due to city planning. This ought to change by investing into better infrastructure. In rural areas I see cars as the best option as it’s cheap and efficient there.
That solution will still require the fat lazy selfish car drivers to choose to sacrifice a little of their personal comfort for the sake of the common good.
Yes, the alternatives need to exist, but there also has to be cultural change. Driving a private car in a city is antisocial. It’s exactly analagous to smoking in a restaurant or office and we need to begin to see it that way.
Making it legal(or even, encouraged) to spray 1500psi water jet to anyone smoking when non-smoking people are around.
There are bigger problems that I agree need to be solved but I’m not personally that verbal about them. But the one I complain about the most has got to be potholes.
In the UK farmers are responsible for maintaining the hedgerows between the road and their fields so I feel like they should also be responsible for filling in the potholes caused by their heavy machinery and the cow shit left behind when they’re moving cattle.
Fix the electoral college by either abolishing it entirely (personal choice) or fixing the house to properly represent the population such that the senate doesn’t cause an oversized share of electoral reps. The Wyoming Rule is one option.
We could also just go back to something like one rep per 100,000 population in a state, which would in turn make the house have 3,000 members. This sounds wild until you realize Parliament in the U.K. has 650 members… representing a population roughly 1/5 ours.
This is probably a fool’s errand, because it’s all or nothing, making it inherently unstable. If we ever get within striking distance of having enough states to cross the threshold, the law will be fought tooth and nail to prevent passage, and this battle would continue in perpetuity in every remotely purple state that has the NPVIC law in place, trying to get enough overturned to stop it.
Maybe it accomplishes something useful simply by bringing the conversation about reform to the forefront? But as an actual solution I’m completely skeptical, as much as I like the idea.
Oh boy, I’m going to downvoted into oblivion for what I’m about to write. Here we go.
It will be about unchecked illegal immigration, so hang tight. First of all, everyone that’s trying to illegally cross borders should be sent back to the country of origin. Next, all permanent resident/citizen immigrants that break a law should be returned to a country of origin. On top of that all crimes should be treated equally, no matter who committed it.
I’ve solved it already! There’s no illegal immigration based on international law, there’s irregular immigrants.
Sending people back would cost more than welcoming them and having them pay taxes.
People can already get deported for breaking the law but it would be stupid to make it systematic no matter the law considering that locals break laws all the time and just end up having to pay a fine
all permanent resident/citizen immigrants that break a law should be returned to a country of origin.
crimes should be treated equally, no matter who committed it.
What I meant was that the “minority” offenders that cannot be sent back should be charged the same way as the “majority” of the population. Sorry for the confusion.
I think I’m MORE confused now, but I appreciate that you tried to clarify.
I can see it now. Sorry about being ambiguous. What I mean is that the first generation immigrants who were granted permanent residency or citizenship should be treated the same way as multiple generation citizens, including crime punishment.
What I mean is that the first generation immigrants who were granted permanent residency or citizenship should be treated the same way as multiple generation citizens
Are they not, in your country?
As in “treat them better” or as in “I’ve been led to believe they’re treated better and that multiple generation citizens are treated worse”? Because seeing your comments so far I’m pretty sure you’re thinking the latter.
What I mean is that the first generation immigrants who were granted permanent residency or citizenship should be treated the same way as multiple generation citizens, including crime punishment.
I’m still confused… So do you want them sent back to country of origin or not? Because that’s by definition a different treatment from 2nd generation or later citizens. Or do you want to deport 2nd generation citizens somewhere too?
Voting for people that are closest to want I think is good.
Volunteering in non-profits.
Pushing for progressive ideas at work.
Trying be an example of what I defend and explain to people around me it if they ask me, without pushing them to change, hoping that I can slowly change the culture around me without triggering mental blockers. For example when a colleague asks if I’m vegetarian, I explain that I am rather flexitarian, which means I don’t have forbidden food but I favor food with smaller ecological impact. If they seem not receptive, I’ll listen politely and not try to change their minds. If they seem receptive, I’ll show them the Poore & Nemeck studies. Sometimes just a bit of neutral information is enough to trigger a change.In short, I don’t want to be someone who just blames the governments or companies, and make no efforts otherwise. I think we need a cultural change at every stage of society.
Stopping the wealth accumulation at the top through taxes on property above a threshold.
And, supplementary:
Stopping tax evasion by implementing a global tax cooperative so nations can stop competing in a downward race on tax rates
Guillotine now. Adequate tax rates moving forward.
Stopping tax evasion by implementing a global tax cooperative so nations can stop competing in a downward race on tax rates
You may or may not be aware that the OECD has already begun implementing something like that:
Yeah I remember reading about it. This is probably a step in the right direction without having looked at all the details
