Please help!
The prompt is:
2.
Briefly describe what you believe is a major domestic problem confronting the United States - socially, economically or in health care. Indicate how you think this problem should be resolved.
THANKS!
Creating a Social Economy
The United States runs on a very consumerist economy. Three years ago, the nation's finance and credit, which drives our economy, froze. Since then, governments have injected enormous sums of money to try and keep this consumerist system afloat. Why does the government put so much money into this kind of economy? This consumerist system creates unemployment in youth, and thousands of people who come out of college hit brick walls and become unemployed. These people have wit, brains, and energy, but because they are unemployed, lose hope. They think that they are useless. It's really astonishing how capitalism can be so efficient at some things, but so inefficient at others.
Around twenty years ago, the United States was going through the longest boom ever in the history of this country. But this growth did not always deliver what people needed. There were unprecedented levels of wealth and prosperity, but rates of depression continued to grow. Contrary to popular belief, economic growth does not automatically translate to social growth. This year, there will be a million unemployed young people, and thousands of people lose their jobs every day in America. This is really a crisis in the United States. However, I believe that we can use this crisis to jump forward to a different kind of economy that is more balanced with society. After all, the deepest crises can be moments of opportunity for acceleration and much needed reform. If you look at the 1930s, the Great Depression paved the way for policies like Bretton Woods and welfare states.
There is an enormous amount of money going into fixing the past instead of preparing us for the future. We spend money on bailing out the banks and well-known companies like car companies, instead of solving the really profound problems that we have to solve. And that is the problem with the United States. Instead of spending unprecedented sums on boosting consumption, we should be using this money with a longer-term vision: to accelerate the shift to a green economy, and to deal with some of the inequalities, rather than just giving the money to incumbents. We should be giving the money to entrepreneurs, to civil society, for people able to create the new. Not to the big, well-connected companies or big clunky government programs.
What will be the biggest sectors of the economy in the future? If it is the ones lining up for handouts, like cars and aerospace, then the economy is doomed. But if the biggest sectors are things like health, elder care, child care, education, environmental services, energy services, and the myriad of green jobs, then the economy will be much more successful because it will be a different kind of economy. It won't just be about products, but will be about using distributed networks, and it will be founded on care, on relationships, and on what people do to other people, rather than simply selling them a product.
The United States has to radically change. It can't go back to where it was before the crisis. But this change can only be achieved through experiment. We'll have to learn things like how to run a low carbon city, how to care for a much older population, and how to deal with drug addiction. The only way that this can happen is through experience. The United States now spends about three to four percent of the Gross Domestic Product to invest in science and technology, and to fuel the pipeline of brilliant invention. It's not that scientists are smarter now; they just get more funding and backing.
In society, there's almost nothing comparable: no comparable investment, no systematic experiment, in the things capitalism isn't very good at, like compassion, empathy, relationships, or care. If we put just one percent of public spending into social innovation, such as elder care, new kinds of education, and new ways of helping the disabled, then perhaps we'll be able to achieve similar productivity gains in society to those we've had in the economy and in technology. A generation ago, the big challenge was getting a man on the moon. Now, the big challenge should be advancing social innovation.
