First, what needs solving? The problem is that Americans are not satisfied with the direction of the country. This link leads to a graph of weekly Gallup Polls (with the data points below) showing “satisfaction with the way things are going in the U.S.” from 1979 to the present. Unfortunately the graph is split into quintiles and has no 50% line making it hard to see a majority. But it would be reasonable to expect that if at least half the people are satisfied, we are doing OK.
The last time the number on the satisfied column reached even 40% was July 2005. We are going on 15 consecutive years with 60% or more dissatisfied. Herein lies the problem.
Furthermore, what are people dissatisfied with? The list is a familiar one and never seems to change: the obesity epidemic, retirement insecurity, drug and alcohol addiction, teen smoking and vaping, declining educational system and student performance, sleep deprivation, consumer fraud, smartphone addiction, science illiteracy, spiraling healthcare costs, deceptive advertising, media-driven fears and hype, health and financial scams, income inequality, frivolous lawsuits, gun violence, the demonization of big business and many more.
Life continues to grow more complex. Our children must be protected from Internet predators, school shooters, violent videogames, drugs, too much screen time, tobacco, faulty highchairs and car seats, laundry soap and other household chemicals, dangerous toys and insufficiently padded playgrounds. Adults must to be warned about the dangers of ladders, power tools, tobacco, alcohol and texting while driving (or walking). Students’ science and math scores are declining. Americans are eating too much, spending more screen time amusing and competing for attention on social media causing them to become angrier and more isolated and spending more money than they earn. Advertisers seem to invent new problems as quickly as they try to con us into buying their miracle products to cure the old ones.
It’s not just President Trump’s fault. The Gallup graph spans the administrations of eight presidents and 20 congressional elections. We seem to keep asking government to fix it; but if government could fix it, we should see some evidence of at least some progress over the past 40 years. In fact, government has been fighting a “war “on poverty and another on drugs for longer than that with nothing to show for it but a stable poverty level and an opioid epidemic. Government got involved in student loans and mortgages to what end? Government is the wrong American solution!
A careful review of the problems shows that most of them are caused by individual behaviors resulting in poor individual problems. The only reason they become national problems is that they spread and accumulate across society. People eat too much, spend too much and fall for advertising tactics, not because of the government or any other outside agent. They make choices. Make the opposite choice and get the opposite outcome, a favorable outcome.
As evidence of this, twice a week for almost 450 weeks, I have been giving examples of how unwise behavior in one or more of the five key behavioral dimensions leads to unhappy consequences, many of which are listed above. Wiser behavior in those dimensions may not solve everything, but it’s an excellent place to start. We can think and act our way out of most of those bad consequences, which is far superior to sitting back and waiting for someone else to bail us out, especially after seeing few positive results over the last 40 years.
No comments:
Post a Comment
Click again on the title to add a comment