Prioritizing

[JerichoHill]

The world has a host of problems. It seems that many people want to focus on many problems. Since this divides money, time, and other factors, it lessens the chance of any successes that concentrated effort would yield.

Therefore, I posit that it is in the world's country's city's best interest to choose ONE problem and focus on its solution until it arrives.

The decision rule is fairly simple. Choose ONE problem that is related to more other problems (that one would like to address). Solving such a problem would help solve the other related issues.

This kind of research has actually been done. I am curious to see if anyone in OT will come up with what that one "uber-problem" is.

You can only choose 1 problem. It cannot be "Pollution" but could be "Greenhouse gases", for example

Get it, Got it, good?

 

[El_Machinae]

I'd think it would be better for people to work on problems that they enjoy working on. A devoted scientist is worth 5 regular scientists. A devoted aid worker is worth 5 regular workers, etc.

Plus, there are diminishing returns on investment. Each additional person adds less value, after a certain point.

I think spreading our efforts around increases the efficiency.

 

[Mulholland]

Gov't Corruption I think is the biggest, both nationally and internationally. Throw out the bad apples i.e. the robber barons, the bribe takers and mass murdrers. Gov't officials are there to represent the people; if they are proven to have purposley abandoned this duty they should be ousted immediatley. Find better ways of catching them, punishng them and making good examples of them.

 

[Narz]

If we were good at Prioritizing would we be posting here in an Off Topic gaming forum?

...who knows, maybe we would.

 

[PLATO]

Education...hands down!

Once educated, then people will naturally solve the other problems.

 

[Tycoon101]

Crime and Punishment. If we eradicate crime then there will be no corruption, and we can have an excellent society that learns. But I would take a stupid law-abiding citizen over a smart criminal any day.

 

[Raisin Bran]

Solving Pauvrety

in relation to what Plato said. Help other countries out so we can all be on the same level then all will follow.

 

[History_Buff]

If we could get the whole world educated, we would solve so many problems. Might just crash the world economy though. If we could solve poverty AND have a sustainable economy, we'd be set.

 

[Stylesjl]

Polictical Corruption, solve this and many other problems won't be as bad and can be solved easier

 

[Birdjaguar]

Meanness, if each of us were a little kinder everyday...

 

[PrinceOfLeigh]

Whilst I agree with the OP in principle I'd have to say that most 'single' issues are interlinked. Education - Poverty - Pollution - Crime and Disorder are for example all economic problems. As is War in some circumstances. I don't think any of these can be solved without paying attention to the other interlocking issues.

 

[El_Machinae]

We need to work on the 'jealousy' meme that's ruining things. If you have a good job, with a good salary, you'll be happy (in that regard). If you then meet me, and learn that I work 12 hours a week and pull in 50% more money than you ... allofasudden you're dissatisfied with your job, and you're angry with it AND me.

I find that mindset to be very frustrating. If you live in a economic situation that benefits you, why be jealous if it benefits someone else even more? Especially if you're willing to hurt yourself to bring down your 'peer' to your level. Urg. That frustrates me.

My main issues:
-unsustainable births (frankly, I think it's better to not have children than watch 5 year olds die of starvation).
-unsustainable ecological practices (I don't want to eat next year's planting corn)
-too little investment (as frustrating as it is, if you give people extra money, they don't seem to invest it - they seem to spend it on luxury goods. But the alternative (taking their money and investing it for them) seems to suck too)
-progress is too slow (too many luddites)

 

[Mulholland]

Education and poverty are indeed two of the most important issues to be solved. Unfortunatley we can not properly and efficiently address them if politicans are lining thier pockets with taxpayers money and caving to hard edged lobbyists.
Crime and punishment is also important but simply increasing sentances and fines will not be sufficent. How many criminals weigh the costs and benefits before commiting a crime? How many greedy fatcats intend to be caught at all? The diffence between ten and fifteen years seems marginal to me and if I was hell bent on commiting a crime wouldn't deter me.

 

[tomsnowman123]

Social domination is a big problem I believe, like racism, sexism, class exploitation, bureaucratic domination. Another biggie for me is violence, and the lack of harmonizing humans with nature (which violence greatly prevents).

 

[Veritass]

Bump.

Ok, I've been waiting to see what anyone says on this topic, and what you are going to point to as the uber-problem. I was going to vote for either (1) government corruption, but I think that one's intractable, or (2) finding a renewable cheap energy source, which I think would go a long way to ending hunger and freeing up people.

What is the consensus of your experts?

 

[WillJ]

JerichoHill, I'm confused; is there actually a (more or less) correct answer to the uber-problem question? If so, I'm very curious about what the experts you hint at think.

I'm guessing this mysterious uber-problem is whatever is the most important factor in keeping undeveloped countries undeveloped. Not sure what that is (I don't think anyone is), so I'll say third-world political instability / lack of rule of law. Political stability is necessary for a stable currency and infrastructure, which are in turn necessary for effective financial investment, which is necessary for making Africa and Asia non-hellholes.