Why don't people in power talk about
the obvious most important things?
during the 2024 presidential campaign,
both Kamala Harris and Donald Trump seemed to struggle to find topics
that would sway voters to them. Harris promised to provide $25,000
toward first-home purchases, alluding to the shortage of housing.
Trump, sticking to his anti-immigration theme, worried that that
immigrants to the US are “eating the dogs, they're eating the cats”
in a small town in Ohio. Both candidates steered clear of the most
obvious and important topics. I'd like to shine a light on what they
should have been focusing on.
The writers of the US Constitution
stated their goal was “in Order to form a more perfect Union,
establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the
common defense, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings
of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity.” Housing and illegal
immigration do fit in there, but I submit that there are more clear
and important areas to consider.
Climate IS talked about, which
is good. But what was said is not. While Trump called protecting
the environment a “green new scam,” Kamala Harris has said she
will “unite Americans to tackle the climate crisis.” Not a lot
of detail in either campaign though.
Now on to the easy ones.
The US has about 5000 nuclear
weapons. Why? The cost for upgrading and maintaining these
weapons is estimated to be $756 billlion over the next 10 years.
(https://www.cbo.gov/publication/59054)
Let's negotiate again with our “enemies” and cut this down to
about 100 nukes. Savings: about $700 billion, and probably the
salvation of our species.
Here are the countries that don't have
universal health care: the US, South Africa, Iran, Egypt,
Nigeria, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Syria, Yemen, China.
https://www.worldatlas.com/articles/10-notable-countries-that-are-still-without-universal-healthcare.html
Our own NIH says universal health care is about 13% cheaper than
private health care. This is a savings of about $450 billion per
year. It's simpler and more equitable.
Growing inequality is a danger
to our democracy. Are we going back to the time when the kings and
princes lived in their castles, and the rest of us peons scraped by
in our hovels outside the castle walls? It seems so. Tax the money
hoarders. There is no reason that any one person needs more than $10
million (using that as an arbitrary limit). Consider the tax rates
in the 1950s, and look at how much better off the middle class
relatively was then. Single breadwinners in each family, most
households could afford a car, a home, and higher education. And the
rich? Despite tax rates of up to 90%, the rich somehow stayed
relatively wealthy. https://youtu.be/q2gO4DKVpa8?si=7rPGCe4M3XI5O3C3
The US debt, $36.1 trillion, is
a huge anchor on our economy. As with any household, if you're just
paying off your debt instead of paying for improving your life, you
are stuck in quicksand. This huge debt requires a huge percentage of
our GDP just to pay for our past, not our future.
https://fiscaldata.treasury.gov/americas-finance-guide/national-debt/
There is a little talk about the
homeless, about the housing shortage, about the lack of healthcare
for some, etc. All this should just be bundled into one point:
there should be a baseline for all people below which we
strive to let no one fall. This baseline means not that people can
dawdle around and still live comfortably. It means that those who
are temporarily or permananently unable to support themselves will
not have to live hungry and cold under a bridge somewhere. Once this
baseline is reasonably calculated, the argmnents from then on should
only be about how to make sure people do not scam the system.
All corporations should be Benefit
corporations (i.e. have to be of benefit to society). No longer
should our capitalist system allow a corporation to gain profits by
making the world less habitable. No longer should corporations be
able to exploit the citizens so they can have fancier cars. A
Benefit corporation must not only strive to give a profit to their
shareholders, but must show that their activities also benefit
society in general.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Benefit_corporation
Plastics are everywhere.
Plastics are inside our bodies, at the bottom of the ocean, and in
just about every product made. About 380 million tons of plastic
products are made every year. In contrast, all humans alive today
weigh about 600 million tons. We will not only drown ourselves and
the planet in plastic, but it is also invading our bodies and our
food. Why? For profit and convenience. Humans, we may soon find
out, prefer convenience to self preservation.
We try to help the planet by working on
our energy use. We make appliances and vehicles that use less
energy. We switch to sources of energy that are safer for the
planet. And yet, our use of energy is growing exponentially. And
besides all the people on earth who are beginning to also have access
to cheaper energy, we also have energy gobblers popping up. Crypto
currency, for example, uses about the same amount of electricity as
the nation of the Netherlands. Crypto mining requires enormous
amounts of computers working 24/7 on calculations to create crypto
wealth. Artificial intelligence (AI) applications have also massive
computation requirements, which again suck up enormous amounts of
electricity. And why? So we can make cute videos of cats playing
piano or some silly thing? AI is being used in more and more
industries, so more and more computing and energy hogging will be
coming our way. As we try to switch to safer energy sources, we may
not be able to keep up with expanding energy demands even if we keep
our carbon guzzling power plants. Does anybody talk about this? No.
So I can see why people are tired of
how our country is run at this time. Our politicians talk about
everything under the sun except the most important topics. Trump,
for example, brought up an immigrant problem he perceived in one town
in Ohio during the presidential debates. Really? Nothing more
important to bring up? Harris promised $25,000 to new home buyers.
Really? Who still could afford a house? And where will these
non-existent houses spring up?
We cannot let our politicans and power
brokers steer us away from the bigger problems we are facing. They
are obvious. They are existential problems. They will affect our
country for generations. And they all have solutions. We must hold
those in power accountable and require them to deal with the obvious
problems first. I don't offer solutions here. I offer the direction
we should look and the things we should see that are actually right
in front of our eyes every day, if we'd only take the time to notice.
