Your take on biggest problem facing the country?

[MrScorpio]

Mine: This country's rapid race to the bottom as the mega-rich uses politicians to widen the gulf between the rich and the poor.

[MNDemNY]

1. A socially illiterate electorate.

[Auggie]

3. I was going to say corruption, but it does indeed begin with the electorate

[AlGore-08.com]

2. Global Warming

Nothing else matters if we don't reverse it. And if we do, we have an opportunity to solve a lot of our other problems.

[OHdem10]

4. Mr Scorptio is correct. --Without money circulating among

all groups, there is not tax base. No tax base means ==cannot
afford to fix Global Warming, Health Care, rbuild the military
improve education.

The Wider the Wealth Gap and race to the bottom economically
can only lead to a Banana Republic.

Not much can be seriously accomplished by a banana republic.

[YOY]

5. -A bloated defense budget and what's being done to justify it

-A decaying infrastructure and an educational system that needs a HUGE overhaul. And by huge overhaul I mean that "standardized tests" to dumb it down further.

-Less protectionist policies to stem off-shoring off every last bit of industry we possess...save defense.

[magellan]

6. Government corruption n/t

[TahitiNut]

7. I agree. It's a systemic problem that underlies everything.

For the "top 1%" all other problems that face human beings, both in this country and globally, just don't matter personally - or the problems are merely opportunities for exploitation and creation of ever greater wealth and power. I.e. they're not "problems," they're "features." From a systemic perspective, it has 'hysteresis (feedback) effect' - the controls on the economic/political system are biased (cross-wired) to exacerbate the problems rather than ameliorate them.

[jmg257]

8. The willingness of our elected representatives to exert more and more control over the people,

so they can usurp more and more power from them.

What is worse then that though is the willingness of the people to go along.

[Beerboy]

9. Nooses. n/t.

[OPERATIONMINDCRIME]

10. The Media. Period.

[Donald Ian Rankin]

11. Its hostility to government intervention

Any kind of social program that would benefit the poor - more spending on education, healthcare, social security etc - is immediately savaged as "Big Government", and hence politically hazardous at best, and often politically suicidal.

The problems with America are not primarily the fault of "the rich" or "corporations" or "lobbyists" or "government corruption" or any other nice scapegoat.

They're due to the fact that most of the electorate are very hostile to government intervention, and hence vote for conservatives.

[flashl]

16. Good point. But this the goverment growth under repugs

[ayeshahaqqiqa]

12. Lack of integrity

and honor. Now it only matters that you have lots of money and power, and it matters not how you got it or who you hurt in getting it.

[Angela Shelley]

13. I´m Nr. 1 ... I want, I get ... Me, Me, Me ... The Secret ...

which leads to households living over their incomes, companies cheating to increase profits, and the government unceasingly borrowing from foreign countries to continue the occupation of Iraq.

[Avalux]

14. Lack of education; critical thinking

It's easy for the government and the media to lie when the people are too stupid to challenge them and hold them accountable.

[The2ndWheel]

15. Physical reality

Economically, politically, environmentally...really any "ally".

[Cerridwen]

17. I can name that take in one word...poverty.

While I agree with your assessment, MrScorpio, for the purpose of this post I'd rather zero in on those who have already hit that "bottom" as the rest come racing toward them; the crush will be unbearable.

In a nation that is reputed to hold the highest concentration of wealth in the world, it is inconceivable to me that there is even one person in this country who is; homeless, suffers from malnutrition, may die due to cold in the winter or heat in the summer, or who may die due to no or limited health care; much less the millions who fit the above circumstances.

If anyone believes the old saw that a "chain is only as strong as its weakest link," then I would argue the U.S., given its purported wealth and rumored ingenuity, is the weakest country on this planet.

If we are to strengthen the the chain of our population, we must strengthen every link.

A person who is hungry is less able to learn, regardless of the availability of school rooms and teachers; no amount of education fills an empty belly nor can penetrate a nutrition starved brain. While we're "teaching a man to fish" we must be sure he does not starve to death as he learns.

A person who is sick, is unable to earn, or learn, or produce, or perhaps, to survive.

A person in pain, can do none of the above.

A person with no home can become subject to all the above.

Poverty - the biggest problem facing this country.

We must heal, feed, house, clothe every person in the "richest country" on the planet or we have no business telling others how to run theirs. When we have done that, we will all benefit through the added skills, knowledge, and contributions of those whom so many dismiss, as the "undeserving" poor.

My, never very humble, opinion.

[Beausoleil]

18. I agree, the problem is the greed of the elite.

From this, most of our major problems flow.

The Media: in the elite's back pocket.

The Political System: ditto.

The Government: ditto.

Education: can't have any educated serfs, erect barriers for those not born into wealth.

Government/Media propaganda: designed to keep the working classes in line, hypnotized, and distrusting of those they should be listening to and listening to those they should distrust.

[razors edge]

19. Apathy. n/t

[spanone]

20. The loss of an investigative, free, unbiased media...democracy cannot survive without it.

[demodonkey]

21. Elections Not Reflecting the true Will of the People.

If elections are able to be manipulated or outright stolen NOTHING ELSE MATTERS because the consent of the governed is the core of everything else in our representative democracy.

Meaning if everyone who is eligible and wants to vote does not GET TO VOTE & HAVE HIS OR HER VOTE COUNTED ACCURATELY AS CAST, our country is down the drain and all these other problems will never get solved.

Again -- Voting is the core of our democracy!

[alittlelark]

22. The propagandists we call the Main Stream Media

[AuntPatsy]

23. Ignorance and apathy...

[Kingshakabobo]

24. Campaign financing and corporate money/lobbyists.

[Beelzebud]

25. Corporate control of BOTH political parties is destroying America bit by bit.

[slackmaster]

26. Our recalcitrance at joining the rest of the civilized world

In adopting and embracing the Metric System.