America in Crisis - Five Core Problems, But Are They Solvable or Do We Dissolve As a Nation

reply to post by Kastogere
Get rid of the lawyers let the teachers,teach,and if your kid acts up all the time , give em the boot, the kids parents will figure it out after a while. I beleive they call it discipline. It is somthing that China and India preach to there childern. We have lost that here in our nation. Just my 2 cents worth.

reply to post by pajoly


The "problems" you identify are indeed issues but they were once the very forces that propelled us to empire. We are in the same boat as old imperial Athens, Rome et cetera, ad nauseam... There's little new in the earth. We have utilized racism and "exceptionalism" to great effect in the past century or so, and now we have to pay the piper.

We were, after all, stupid enough to invade Afghanistan.

reply to post by pajoly


Very relevant. Well thought out and organized. Cogent. (I love that word). You sir have hit on a very nice condensation of our most pressing short comings.

1. First, front and center. is a growing acceptance of a fundamentalism. Not just in a biblical or religious sense. More and more all experience is defined by a fundamental principal. Any argument contrary to, or not arising from that principal cannot be accepted as useful.

2. American exceptionalism. One of this countries, first principals. This sits a very rigid code, of conduct for a nation. We've always done it this way, and America is exceptional in that it does it the right way. a kind of a self justifying loop allowing for little change. As you say this concept is enjoying a rapid, thoughtless acceptance.

3. Neoliberal Capitalism We'll get back to this later.

4. Media complicity. The news shows little desire to investigate and is used as propaganda, or thought forming device.and the information area is primarily a marketing tool benefiting whom? Well get back to this later

5. Military, security complex. This is probably the most destructive of all. Not so much for Americans,(yet) but has been pretty severe for a lot of poor people in other countries.

Well it's later and we need to talk about Neoliberal Capitalism It's appropriate that you have placed this in the center, smack dab between 1, 2 and 4,5 as this lies at the heart of all the other problems

Fundamentalism. "Capitalism is fundamental to democacy". Well we know this ain't true but as a fundamental principal it's hard to contradict.

Exceptionalism . Capitalism is the American way and as such, enjoys an air of perfection by way of this exceptionalism.

Media corruption. Media serves one master, capitalism.

Military. The strong arm of capitalism, and a playground to reap some real profit.

If you want to address the problems. If you are to have any hope. You need to address the core problem. Capitalism.without restraint.

Capitalism works, and it provides a great many things we would not other wise have. But these benefits are not generally shared by all. And eventually, these benefits are increasingly directed to fewer and fewer. with the costs to the remaining becoming greater and greater. If you want to fix things, I would suggest you start here.

Originally posted by Kastogere
.....this time around leave money out of the equation...

This might have been the most uneducated and absurd thing I have ever heard. No one will ever work without some form of compensation or money; its a natural repercussion of society. Everyone wants to be compensated for their product or service whether its from a monetary system, food, bargaining tool, or any other form of "money". This just screams utopia to me where everyone will work for the greater good and there are no problems...this will never happen!

Before there were actual monetary systems people would exchange basic amenities such as supplies. Please educate yourself

reply to post by Tarzan the apeman.


And you wouldnt be too far off the mark IMO. This country has lost principal in place of whats cool or hip to the moment.

reply to post by NAeagle89


I never said it was a perfect system...and by all means people can still do what they do, only this time around money should not be the driving force in our lives. And since that is a paradigm that people are used to, thats what keeps recurring throughout history. I for one think we are capable of so much more than this. Your basic needs would be met, anything else would be gravy.

If we spent as much as we did fighting WW II on a peaceful solution that provided for the worlds needs at that time...we would have actually spent less money.

I am educated, more than you think. I'm just not willing to keep up this sharade that only makes a select few richer, while I slave to survive. Thats not freedom friend....money needs to come out of politics and laws...until then, we will never be truely free.

Yeesh your first point is full of ignorance. when will people realize that stupid people exist in religion, government or any ideology you can think of. You are hung up on religion instead of seeing that the problem are the people using religion for their selfish goals.

In our country the spread of democracy is used to motivate people to go to war against other countries by brainwashing you into thinking you can spread democracy with a gun. Spreading democracy has caused much destruction, does this make democracy a CORE problem in america??? I mean we zealously want to spread it all over the world which puts us in conflict with other nations since we keep trying liberate them so they can have a democracy. the day people realize this is not how it works rallying up people with the cry to spread democracy loses its power.

This is the same case with religion, at least chrisitianity. Unless there is something violent and oppressive about the new testament. I haven't read anything there about hindering science or undermining it. Those who say it does have an agenda, kinda like those who are using democracy to achieve their selfish goals. Then there are those that are as you say literal, and those literals do not exist just in the religious camp. You just have a prejudice against religion which is fine, but do not try to make that a core problem.


The core problems of america are that we are irresponsible and decadent. we do not appreciate what we have and we have lost our way. All the things that made amreica a good country have been eroded away.

Education is one thing that was used to destroy america or more like the lack there of that has destroyed america. Schools teach you to be tools, not to be thinking individuals. An oppressive government wants a dumb population because they are easier to control. If they do not understand the issues that affect our country today and they are just trained to agree with our leaders because they know better then we are easily controlled. Kinda like back in the dark ages of christianity where all the texts were in latin and the people did not speak much less read latin. YES THE BIBLE SAYS GIVE US MONEY AND YOU GO TO HEAVEN. It is the same ol song and dance we are experiencing now except they use a different vehicle.

we have also as a country lost the ability to be responsible for oneself. We saw how many irresponsible people we had when we had the housing crash. Everyone involved in this was too dumb or to irresponsible to figure out that they made very poor decisions that would lead them to lose their homes.

We are dumb and irresponsible. You can throw any amount of money at education but it will not fix the problem if they keep teaching us the same crap that got us to this point today.

There is really no way to salvage anything until everyone who exists in the usa today is gone. There needs to be new blood that is born under harsh conditions who will need to be responsible for oneself and will not let their leaders pull the wool over their eyes.

reply to post by pajoly


Extraordinarily well said! There is not much I can add to that!

Education. A population of ignorance is the easiest to control and steer. Free thought and critical thinking do not serve the agenda of mass servitude.

Religion. Having a foundation of morality is wanted and expected. However, the whole idea of separation of church and state is so that those particular principles cannot be "dictated" to another living and thinking human being.

The greatest country on earth. Beautiful catch phrase isn't it? To question such a concept is to be UN-American...where in truth we fall further and further behind the rest of the developed world in education, healthcare and overall standard of living.

Freedom. America was essentially founded on a philosophy not so dissimilar to Libertarianism. If they saw today, the founding fathers would most likely vomit and then go to fists with the leaders in our hallowed halls of Governance.

Capitalism. It can be traced back to the end of the Great Depression to a gentleman named Edward bernays and his Uncle, Sigmund Freud. The idea that "consumerism" is a means of self expression and self value... rolls quite well into the hands of the elite manufacturing and importing corporations. If they make you "want" or "lust" or "envy"...then the greed is a normal consequence. I am completely for capitalism...just not "crony capitalism".

Media. Nearly alll media outlets are owned by somewhere around 5 major corporation/conglomerates. It is essentially a monopoly of information. They share what they want you to know and slant it in such a way as to draw out a pre-concluded opinion/reaction. The "powers that be" invest billions into the subtle mind games of marketing and propaganda...they sell you down the road on an idea and you walk away with a glazed look in your eyes, convinced it was "your" idea.

The military industrial complex. We were warned decades ago about this sleeping monster. It strikes me as amazing how certain parties will wail against government monies to the people yet the mega corporations that supply our latest and greatest weapons have been sucking on that teet for years. It is but another scam to pull the wool over the people's eyes and bleed them of their hard earned revenue. "There are threats everywhere...we need to spend your tax dollars." Then, after stockpiling a tremendous amount of destruction, someone decides we must draw the supplies down to justify buying/spending more...so they strt another conflict...beware the word "war"...that is blasphemy.

I don't think you are pessimistic, I think you are being quite "realistic".

This country has been bought and paid for while we watched sports and entertainment...while we kicked each other in the head at the stores the day after Thanksgiving to buy the newest and shiniest "toys".

No, there isn't much we can do. We can hope, and try to work at the local levels to bring about some change...at least change in our own neighborhood is better than no change at all.

I'm afraid I am even more pessimistic than you. I try to have hope, I try to be a positive thinker but my cognitive thinking turns in on itself and I find myself praying for cataclysm...only a complete wipe out and re-boot from the stone ages is going to fix this abomination...sorry...at this point, I see no other way.

I say we forget about it, who cares we should let the country just flat out fail. I don't know if anyone has noticed but the system in place right now is just whacked. People end up dead from the police more than any gang or criminal activity that could ever take place, child molesters get to walk free on probation, and our leaders steal our own money. I could go on and on but you say well what would we replace it with....

Replace it with nothing..