Though by no means all-inclusive, the following are among today’s most intractable problems:
- Global warming. Our planet has a fever, and it’s getting worse
- Distribution of income and wealth: the abysmal inequality in the U.S. and much of the world.
- The Electoral College and its ramifications.
- Political gridlock.
- Sanctions: a policy with unintended consequences.
- Enormous chronic trade deficits.
- The cost of education. Universities welcome foreign students because they pay higher tuition. Are they training our competitors?
- The looming social security crisis.
- The mushrooming national debt.
- The worship of money.
- The skyrocketing cost of medical and long-term care insurance. Who will pay, and how much, for those who cannot afford coverage?
- Derivatives: A Sword of Damocles hanging over humanity, or the greatest source of wealth ever invented?
- Real Estate appraisals -the unheralded last line of defense.
- The housing crisis.
- Corruption. What are the risks to whistle blowers?
- Privacy -the unauthorized selling of financial, personal and medical information to anyone willing to pay for it.
- The inevitable, ongoing spread of nuclear weapons. What is the end game?
- The risk of accidental nuclear wars.
- The growing probability of intentional nuclear wars.
- A new (unsustainable) arms race with China and Russia.
- The chronic, intractable Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
- The ongoing mass extinction of plants and animals.
- Lack of safe, reliable, adequate and affordable mass-transit systems in all major metropolitan areas.
- Low-skilled Immigration. What happens if the source of cheap labor dries up?