It is difficult to answer this question with a simple list because the very meaning of the term 'philanthropy' has changed over the last 50 years. Many of the new forms of philanthropy have been quite successful (some examples are given shortly).
If one considers only the large philanthropic foundations that typically characterised philanthropy of 50 or more years ago, then there has been little success. However entirely new models and forms of philanthropy have emerged largely due to changing social dynamics. For more on this see Looking Out for the Future: An Orientation for Twenty-first Cent
It is difficult to answer this question with a simple list because the very meaning of the term 'philanthropy' has changed over the last 50 years. Many of the new forms of philanthropy have been quite successful (some examples are given shortly).
If one considers only the large philanthropic foundations that typically characterised philanthropy of 50 or more years ago, then there has been little success. However entirely new models and forms of philanthropy have emerged largely due to changing social dynamics. For more on this see Looking Out for the Future: An Orientation for Twenty-first Century Philanthropists http://bit.ly/92JWCI
A major factor has been the emergence of privatisation and growing private wealth. Hence the wealth of a society is no longer located mainly in government and a few large institutional funds. Now the wealth is spread much more broadly. Hence even though the large funds are playing less of a role there is nevertheless a growing philanthropic culture.
In 1970, 70 percent of the capital flows to the developing world were from the government sector and 30 percent were from the private sector. In 2003, only 20 percent were from the government sector and 80 percent were from the private sector. (Looking Out for the Future: An Orientation for Twenty-first Century Philanthropists http://bit.ly/92JWCI)
Most of the philanthropic capital is now flowing in a more distributed, diverse and strategic manner (for example, through http://www.avaaz.org/). It is often in the form of many small private donations of money, time, attention and other forms of support that are gathered for a specific purpose and targeted at solving a small component of a larger systemic problem.
These efforts are combined with other approaches and thus it is difficult to say to what degree the solution of the problem depended on philanthropic support and to what degree it depended on governmental support or other economic / social activities.
Some recent examples of social issues successfully addressed by Avaaz in only the past few weeks (Oct 2010) are:
- Canada (420,000 Avaaz members), we just took on an alliance of a media empire and a prime minister to subvert the independence of the country's media in their favour, and won.
- Brazil (730,000 members) we took a civil society movement online and drove an anti-corruption law through congress that is putting large numbers of corrupt politicians out of a job - widely hailed as a political revolution.
- Italy (240,000) we rallied opposition to the Prime Minister's bill to tie the hands of Italy's corruption investigators - commentators hailed the victory as the first time in Italian history online mobilization had shifted the parliamentary agenda.
- Argentina (60,000) we surged to protect crucial glaciers from what looked like certain destruction by mining companies, and won.
- South Africa (70,000) we built a massive public outcry against sweeping new censorship powers over the press, forcing the government to alter its media regulation law.
- Germany (480,000) thousands of last-minute phone calls from our members helped stop the government from drastically cutting its aid budget.
The above is quoted from an email from Avaaz. For more on these stories see http://www.avaaz.org/en/global_victory_report/?cl=785161353&v=7357
Avaaz is just one example of the new face of philanthropy / social giving. Various online micro-credit systems are also distributing increasing amounts of philanthropic capital from wealthier populations to developing societies http://bit.ly/aZYzBy. Also google "microcredit success stories" http://www.google.com/search?q=microcredit+success+stories .
There are also many other different forms of philanthropy around today and more emerging, hence it is rather difficult to define exactly what constitutes 'philanthropy' and what its social impact has been. However the general trend has been towards greater capital flow, more distributed sources of capital, more diverse issues addressed, more strategic approaches and greater influence.
Good question, and the answer is that no social problems I know of were solved by philanthropy during this range. Actually, I'd go further and update the date range to nearly 70 years now, or since WWII.
I've found the why to be best illustrated by science rather than issues of the public good, but that's mainly because my background is in science. The short is that most private schools, specifically their research grants, were funded by private, personal funds up until WWI. These private funds mainly came from the same social philanthropists referenced in the above article. People like Carnegi
Good question, and the answer is that no social problems I know of were solved by philanthropy during this range. Actually, I'd go further and update the date range to nearly 70 years now, or since WWII.
I've found the why to be best illustrated by science rather than issues of the public good, but that's mainly because my background is in science. The short is that most private schools, specifically their research grants, were funded by private, personal funds up until WWI. These private funds mainly came from the same social philanthropists referenced in the above article. People like Carnegie or Alfred Sloan of GM would donate money to some goal, whether through science or more direct funding.
During WWI, the National Research Council was organized by Robert Millikan of Caltech (still Throop Institute of Technology at the time, though) to direct war-related research and its respective funding. After the war, the state of science didn't quite return to the status quo ante, as the issues being dealt with became more complex and the machines more expensive. Additionally, many private sources of capital had been drained by the war. The shift had begun from private to public sources of funding. This shift was confirmed and completed by WWII and the rise of the military-industrial complex. NSF was founded and so on. Private philanthropy had been unable to compete with government funding.
Similarly, in the world of social problems, issues were considered too complex for private individuals to efficiently direct money towards solving. Foreign aid has risen since the Marshall Plan as the best way to affect improvements. International organizations--the WHO for the eradication of smallpox, for example--have sought to funnel any private money through their own definition and selection of the public good. One exception that proves the rule is Borlaug, who was considered non-viable until his Green Revolution started saving millions of people from starvation.
Finally, in about the 1970s, with the failure of the Great Society in the US, the largest, last active philanthropic organizations, like the Ford and Rockefeller Foundation stopped going after the really big, social modification projects. Today, they're still active, along with many other smaller groups, but they tend to follow the lead of the public sources of funding and go after projects and goals of much smaller scope than they did in the 50s and 60s.
Philanthropy has played a significant role in addressing various social problems over the past 50 years. While it's challenging to say that any problems have been completely "solved," philanthropy has contributed to substantial progress in several areas:
- Global Health Initiatives:
- Eradication of Diseases: Philanthropic efforts, particularly by organizations like the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, have significantly contributed to the fight against diseases such as polio and malaria. The Global Polio Eradication Initiative, supported by various donors, has led to a dramatic reduction in p
Philanthropy has played a significant role in addressing various social problems over the past 50 years. While it's challenging to say that any problems have been completely "solved," philanthropy has contributed to substantial progress in several areas:
- Global Health Initiatives:
- Eradication of Diseases: Philanthropic efforts, particularly by organizations like the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, have significantly contributed to the fight against diseases such as polio and malaria. The Global Polio Eradication Initiative, supported by various donors, has led to a dramatic reduction in polio cases worldwide.
- HIV/AIDS: Philanthropy has funded research, treatment, and prevention efforts, helping to reduce the stigma associated with HIV/AIDS and improve access to antiretroviral therapies in developing countries. - Education Access:
- Scholarships and Funding: Philanthropic organizations have provided scholarships and funding for educational initiatives, particularly for underserved communities. Programs like Teach For America and the Harlem Children's Zone have aimed to improve educational outcomes for low-income students.
- Technology in Education: Initiatives to integrate technology into classrooms, supported by philanthropists, have improved educational resources and access, especially in rural and underserved areas. - Poverty Alleviation:
- Microfinance: Organizations like Grameen Bank, supported by various philanthropic efforts, have popularized microfinance, enabling low-income individuals to start businesses and improve their economic situations.
- Food Security: Philanthropic donations have helped fund food banks and nutritional programs, addressing hunger and malnutrition in many communities. - Environmental Conservation:
- Climate Change Initiatives: Philanthropy has funded various environmental initiatives, from renewable energy projects to conservation programs aimed at protecting endangered species and habitats.
- Sustainable Agriculture: Support for sustainable farming practices has helped improve food security and reduce the environmental impact of agriculture. - Civil Rights and Social Justice:
- Advocacy and Legal Support: Philanthropic funding has supported organizations working on civil rights, gender equality, and LGBTQ+ rights, helping to advance social justice initiatives and legal reforms.
- Community Development: Investments in community organizations have empowered marginalized groups and fostered social cohesion. - Public Health:
- Vaccination Campaigns: Philanthropic efforts have supported vaccination campaigns, which have been crucial in combating outbreaks of preventable diseases in various regions, especially in low-income countries. - Disaster Relief and Recovery:
- Emergency Response: Philanthropic organizations have provided critical funding and resources for disaster response and recovery efforts, helping communities rebuild after natural disasters.
While these efforts have led to significant improvements, many social issues remain complex and require ongoing attention and resources. Philanthropy continues to adapt and respond to emerging challenges in society.
This.
I go to a liberal arts and science school in Central Ontario, which is based in a little city of just under 80,000 people. The local pro-life signs originally looked like this, with maybe 15 of them scattered around town.
It includes a picture of a baby with the phrase, “Take my hand, not my life”, and a phone number for the local Peterborough Pregnancy and Support Services center for anyone who might want to chose another option other than abortion.
That’s it.
There are no graphic illustrations of torn up fetuses’, no accusatory attacking statements towards women, not even any urging to ask
This.
I go to a liberal arts and science school in Central Ontario, which is based in a little city of just under 80,000 people. The local pro-life signs originally looked like this, with maybe 15 of them scattered around town.
It includes a picture of a baby with the phrase, “Take my hand, not my life”, and a phone number for the local Peterborough Pregnancy and Support Services center for anyone who might want to chose another option other than abortion.
That’s it.
There are no graphic illustrations of torn up fetuses’, no accusatory attacking statements towards women, not even any urging to ask for donations. Literally just a sign saying, Hey! There is another choice! You don’t have to abort your baby!
Regardless of these facts, every single one of these signs were graffitied across the entire downtown, in similar fashion to the first sign above.
“Now why is this a social issue?” you might ask. “These are the actions of a minority, so why is society at large to blame?”.
The answer lies in society's reaction to these vandal’s methods. No matter which side of the political spectrum you’re on, we can all agree that the destruction of public property is wrong. Yet this vandalism, and distortion of a message which is not even harmful, just contrary to popular university student opinion is being celebrated! Now I’m not one to make assumptions, but if I was going to bet about who spray painted, marked, and cut up these signs, you better believe my money is on a bunch of students from my university, (perhaps even from the gender studies department? but maybe I’m reading into it too much) and not the local permanent community.
When these signs came up in a Facebook discussion among students my age, the vast majority of the students praised these acts of vandalism. Saying things like, “Any mention of abortion can trigger a women into mental breakdown”, and “This graphic message is unfit for the public. It’s right that it was covered up from the eyes of society!” and my favorite, “No one has the right to refuse the choice of women!”.
Ironically, these people are missing the very obvious fact that by purposefully covering the phone number and message of these signs, they actually take away the mother’s choice to choose literally anything except abortion. Which was all the sign was promoting.
Society’s problem today is that if anything is offensive, heck, if anyone disagrees with you, then they are a Nazi. And we are supposed to punch such Nazis.
How about instead we have an open, honest and civilized conversation with our political opponents, rather than exclaiming, “They hate group X !”, and completely discounting what they have to say as hate speech and political heresy.
No and no. First one must understand what poverty actually is. Poverty is the absence of goods and services that one might need or want. Now here is the key - goods and services ONLY exist in that PEOPLE produce and provide them. Thus they are lacking because they have NOT been produced and provided. They have not been produced and provided because they means and ability to produce and to provide them do not exist.
People seem to imagine, implicitly, that there are some big secret warehouse out there somewhere with all these goods and services just waiting for people to have money to “buy” them
No and no. First one must understand what poverty actually is. Poverty is the absence of goods and services that one might need or want. Now here is the key - goods and services ONLY exist in that PEOPLE produce and provide them. Thus they are lacking because they have NOT been produced and provided. They have not been produced and provided because they means and ability to produce and to provide them do not exist.
People seem to imagine, implicitly, that there are some big secret warehouse out there somewhere with all these goods and services just waiting for people to have money to “buy” them and to be distributed to those people lacking those goods and services. There are no such warehouses and no amount of money is going to make those goods and services just magically pop into existence. Those goods and services needed to fill that lack of goods and services must be produced and provided. And that means they must be produced and provided by people and with the ability and the resources to do so.
The “people” part of that is pretty apparent how to “solve” that part. People lacking goods and services are people that could (should) be doing the production of those goods and services they need and want. (Why would they not be expected to produce and provide that which they need and want same as everyone else that does have what they need and want?) The problem is that they lack the knowledge, skill sets, etc. to be able to produce and provide those goods and services they need and want (or other goods and services others would want in exchange for those goods and services). And yes, it is a real issue as to whether they would actually step up to DO THAT WORK of producing those goods and services they need and want - it is a realty that a lot of people do NOT step up and would not step up to do that WORK because,well, it’s WORK, and then they would cry about lacking goods and services after they rejected doing the work to produce and provide that.
But even at that, a person that knows how to work in a factory to produce and provide some good or services is useless without a factory to work in. And should that factory exist, it is useless without materials and resources to feed into it to be turned into goods and services. And why? Because those factories and such only exist to the extent that PEOPLE and resources produce them. The REAL scope and magnitude of the actual problem should now be apparent
Too many people want to stay ignorant and just imagine that money has smoe sort of magical properties to make al that stuff just magically pop into existence. It’s a lot more emotionally staisfying to imagine that there is some sort of conspiracy out there for which we just need to make moeny and firehose it out there and that’s going to just magically fix everything. Why? Because no one wants to have to acknowledge the REALITY of it that it takes WORK and time to build up that societal wealth and prosperity…meaning they might need to be involved and that WORK. More desirable to just imagine you could money the problem away that to accept that it will take WORK and TIME to WORK the problem.
But here’s the good news - this is a process that has been going on for all of human history and has accelerated massively over the past few decades. So what we need to “do” is to not obstruct and interfere with that process - meaning impose some dumbass ignorant government “agendas” predicated on money wishful thinking. AN that includes some dumbass ignorant obsession over “inequality” and “doing something” to “fix” “inequality”. Inequality is NOT a real problem. It is an emotional reaction to perceptions of the real world. Literally NO ONE suffers from other people having stuff (other that the dumbass emotional anguish over the imaginary “problem” of “inequality” that seems to burden so many dumbass ignorant people). People suffer from themselves not having stuff. And depriving other people of their stuff is not only going to NOT solve the problem of people not having stuff, it will make it WORSE. Where other people’s stuff is things like farms that produce the food or the factories that produce stuff, taking that stuff away from those people who are utilizing that stuff to make all the stuff for people that people can then have to eliminate their poverty will stop making that stuff and then those people who did used to have stuff now ALSO no longer have even that stuff as a result and consequence.
Simple answer - just keep doing this:
We hate each other for our political viewpoints alone. It’s like we want a civil war. We cant it to be “Us vs. Them,” because if we actually acknowledge them as people that are actually like us and have their own lives and dreams, it makes it harder. Because it’s so easy to judge them by their single viewpoint alone.
Want an example?
Here’s a message that was sent to me about 11 hours ago:
And this, folks, is a nice, clean cut, representation of everything wrong with America today.
Us vs. Them mentality? Check.
Thinking all people with a different viewpoint are stupid? Check.
Thinking a viewpoint is
We hate each other for our political viewpoints alone. It’s like we want a civil war. We cant it to be “Us vs. Them,” because if we actually acknowledge them as people that are actually like us and have their own lives and dreams, it makes it harder. Because it’s so easy to judge them by their single viewpoint alone.
Want an example?
Here’s a message that was sent to me about 11 hours ago:
And this, folks, is a nice, clean cut, representation of everything wrong with America today.
Us vs. Them mentality? Check.
Thinking all people with a different viewpoint are stupid? Check.
Thinking a viewpoint is going to lead to horror and pain? Check.
Comparing the result of a viewpoint to Hitler? Check.
Calling people on the other side of the political spectrum stupid? Check.
Calling them deplorable? Check.
Mix all the ingredients together and you have a perfect example of a social issue.
Some examples of social issues facing our youth today.
- Sexual abuse
- Poverty :(
- Unemployment
- Drug/Alcohol abuse
- Corruption
- Casteism/Regionalism
- Crime
- Child abuse
- Over population
- Traffic problems
Last but not the least.
- The great Indian reservation system.
All social problems are interconnected.
Source :-
http://nptel.ac.in/courses/109103022/2
Cheers & Peace❤️
||SD||
Some examples of social issues facing our youth today.
- Sexual abuse
- Poverty :(
- Unemployment
- Drug/Alcohol abuse
- Corruption
- Casteism/Regionalism
- Crime
- Child abuse
- Over population
- Traffic problems
Last but not the least.
- The great Indian reservation system.
All social problems are interconnected.
Source :-
http://nptel.ac.in/courses/109103022/2
Cheers & Peace❤️
||SD||
I’m pretty sure Franklin Veaux has covered something very much like this before. I seem to recall reading an answer of his about Norman Borlaug. If that doesn’t float your boat, Jonas Salk, who decided not to patent the Polio vaccine, is a good contender. If that still doesn’t satisfy, then of course there’s Edward Jenner, who pretty much proved the efficacy of vaccines, neglecting his paying practice to the point where he had to be supported by his colleagues. Those are the three best ones I can think of off the top of my head. The literal hundreds of millions of lives saved by these three me
I’m pretty sure Franklin Veaux has covered something very much like this before. I seem to recall reading an answer of his about Norman Borlaug. If that doesn’t float your boat, Jonas Salk, who decided not to patent the Polio vaccine, is a good contender. If that still doesn’t satisfy, then of course there’s Edward Jenner, who pretty much proved the efficacy of vaccines, neglecting his paying practice to the point where he had to be supported by his colleagues. Those are the three best ones I can think of off the top of my head. The literal hundreds of millions of lives saved by these three men are unquantifiable in monetary terms.
International Aid
In the past fifty years, more than $1 trillion in development-related aid has been transferred from rich countries to Africa. Has this assistance improved the lives of Africans? No. In fact, across the continent, the recipients of this aid are not better off as a result of it, but worse—much worse.
—http://www.dambisamoyo.com/books-and-publications/book/dead-aid
I have been told this book is a good place to start for a more critical look at International aid as a whole.
International Aid
In the past fifty years, more than $1 trillion in development-related aid has been transferred from rich countries to Africa. Has this assistance improved the lives of Africans? No. In fact, across the continent, the recipients of this aid are not better off as a result of it, but worse—much worse.
—http://www.dambisamoyo.com/books-and-publications/book/dead-aid
I have been told this book is a good place to start for a more critical look at International aid as a whole.
I see simple solutions to almost all of our most longstanding problems. For example, we could obsolete the utility of most forms of crime, illegal immigration, and income tax avoidance merely by cleverly taxing the black market “by construction”.
Suppose there was a ridiculously high national sales tax on everything. But reported income earned enough of a tax credit to cover everything you had to spend. Then illicit income would end up with so little buying power it just wasn’t worth the trouble.
A long list of our other problems, from unfair wages, ecological sustainability, poverty, a parity o
I see simple solutions to almost all of our most longstanding problems. For example, we could obsolete the utility of most forms of crime, illegal immigration, and income tax avoidance merely by cleverly taxing the black market “by construction”.
Suppose there was a ridiculously high national sales tax on everything. But reported income earned enough of a tax credit to cover everything you had to spend. Then illicit income would end up with so little buying power it just wasn’t worth the trouble.
A long list of our other problems, from unfair wages, ecological sustainability, poverty, a parity of opportunity, policing rogue nations, ensuring fair trade, and much more could be solved without giving governments the opportunity for corruption via a secondary currency designed to directly redress the tragedy of the commons as I’ve more carefully explained in prior answers.
There’s even a much better way to be good citizens that completely removes the need for political campaigns and takes all the money out of politics completely by cleverly making the way we live our lives a campaign of sorts.
Related to economic and social issues There are many issues in society that are directly related to the environment in which you live and the orthodox behavior of society.
- I start with the first ancient example of Sati. This was abolished by Sir William Bentinck became Governor General of India in his 1828. He helped Raja Ram Mohan Roy suppress many common social vices such as sati, polygamy, child marriage and infanticide.
- In 1950 Constitution of India legislated the practice of untouchables and made it affirmative in both educational institutions and public services for Dalits and other social
Related to economic and social issues There are many issues in society that are directly related to the environment in which you live and the orthodox behavior of society.
- I start with the first ancient example of Sati. This was abolished by Sir William Bentinck became Governor General of India in his 1828. He helped Raja Ram Mohan Roy suppress many common social vices such as sati, polygamy, child marriage and infanticide.
- In 1950 Constitution of India legislated the practice of untouchables and made it affirmative in both educational institutions and public services for Dalits and other social groups belonging to the caste system. Stipulated action measures.
- Article 14 Right to Equality “Nation shall not deny equality before the law or equal protection of the law in the sovereign territory of India.”
- Universal suffrage (or the right to vote) is bound by government law and backed by the principle of "one person, one vote" to ensure that as many people as possible have the right to vote. .
- The Constitution of 2002 (86th Amendment) Act added Article 21-A to the Constitution of India to provide free and compulsory education for all children between the ages of 6 and 14. stipulated by law.
- On 30th July 2019, the Indian Parliament declared the practice of triple talak illegal and unconstitutional and criminalized it from 1st August 2019. Three of India's neighbors, Pakistan, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka, are among 23 countries in the world that have banned triple talak.
There are still many problems in society that can be overcome by government intervention. Otherwise, people in society cannot ignore these problems, judge these problems to be social ailments, or need to be addressed. A large Indian forum called it the Parliament (the soul of our nation).
What isn't a problem in society that should have been solved decades ago? The problem of food insecurity looms large. Nobody should go to bed hungry. The problem of affordable housing in integrated neighborhoods comes to mind, too, because education follows close behind. No child should have to be put on a bus for a decent education. Poverty, lack of access to medical care, etc. should not be accepted. If we stopped looking at each other as prey or as competition for scant resources, this would be a lot better place.
The staggering gap between the lowest and highest incomes puts everyone at ris
What isn't a problem in society that should have been solved decades ago? The problem of food insecurity looms large. Nobody should go to bed hungry. The problem of affordable housing in integrated neighborhoods comes to mind, too, because education follows close behind. No child should have to be put on a bus for a decent education. Poverty, lack of access to medical care, etc. should not be accepted. If we stopped looking at each other as prey or as competition for scant resources, this would be a lot better place.
The staggering gap between the lowest and highest incomes puts everyone at risk but we keep muddling along without thinking of how to make that better without disincentive actions. Bill Gates made it pretty fair and square and any attempt to confiscate what he earned would be wrong. I'm not for lowering the roof but we should have created a floor ages ago and we should be raising it now.
Eliminating all the disinformation, and flat out lies being pushed in public schools.
Eliminating all the gender lies being pushed on our kids that are fucking up their heads so bad it is causing suicide and addiction rates to escalate.
Shutting down violent protests no matter who is doing it. Violence should not be tolerated, I don’t care what your cause is. Play nice OR NOT AT ALL.
We also need to dump this stupid methadone program because it is a complete farce. It was supposed to lower addiction rates. Sure didn’t do that, we just have that program breeding more and more addicts because they
Eliminating all the disinformation, and flat out lies being pushed in public schools.
Eliminating all the gender lies being pushed on our kids that are fucking up their heads so bad it is causing suicide and addiction rates to escalate.
Shutting down violent protests no matter who is doing it. Violence should not be tolerated, I don’t care what your cause is. Play nice OR NOT AT ALL.
We also need to dump this stupid methadone program because it is a complete farce. It was supposed to lower addiction rates. Sure didn’t do that, we just have that program breeding more and more addicts because they know they can always get free drugs. It was also supposed to lower crimes rates, and we have plenty of proof that is NOT what is happening. Here, you will frequently come across a crowd of junkies standing right on the sidewalk doing their dope, and accosting any other person that dares to try to walk down that sidewalk. MOST of these people PLAYING homeless are just junkies that don’t even WANT to go to a shelter because they can’t do their dope there.
The social issues in 50–100 years will be to do with attitude and perspective. The promotion of pessimism is a characteristic of this hopeless Age – an Age which is also characterised by fantasy and superstition reflected in illusionary video games, social media, Manga, Marvel comics and the plethora of ghostly horror films produced. It is not surprising that there is a widespread belief in extinction and annihilation. As the Roman chronicler, Juvenal wrote nearly a thousand years ago: ‘Now we suffer the evils of this long-continued peace. Luxury, like an avenging angel and more deadly than wa
The social issues in 50–100 years will be to do with attitude and perspective. The promotion of pessimism is a characteristic of this hopeless Age – an Age which is also characterised by fantasy and superstition reflected in illusionary video games, social media, Manga, Marvel comics and the plethora of ghostly horror films produced. It is not surprising that there is a widespread belief in extinction and annihilation. As the Roman chronicler, Juvenal wrote nearly a thousand years ago: ‘Now we suffer the evils of this long-continued peace. Luxury, like an avenging angel and more deadly than war, broods over a defeated Europe’
Certain societies flourish over time while other societies disappear. Whilst some groups or societies are doing well in the survival stakes, European derived societies are dying-out. They are undergoing the biggest demographic collapse ever witnessed. The European or Caucasian has shrunk from being 25% of the World’s population 100 years ago to less than 10% today and by 2050 it will be down to 5%.
The West and those related to it, have had their time. We have done extremely well as a group considering all the terrible times we have had together but now we are old and weak and, in the normal course of events, are making way for more vigorous groups of people who are unafraid of the future. Westerners no longer have the capacity to bear pain or discomfort which means the main social issue in a hundred years’ time will be the disappearance of the European. Look out for a film called, ‘The last of the Caucasians’, premièring in the next 100 years.
Population. 50 years ago the world’s population stood at less than 4 billion. Now it is approaching 8 billion. It will only take another 25 years to make 16 billion people - and that’s far too many.
The reason that meat animals are treated cruelly? Population. If you need to feed 8 billion people, you need fast, efficient meat processing - it doesn’t need to be cruel, but it is.
Deforestation? Population. If there are 8 billion people all wanting to use palm oil……
Pollution? Population. More people equals more pollution. 8 billion people will fill the planet with shit n plastic far quicker than 4
Population. 50 years ago the world’s population stood at less than 4 billion. Now it is approaching 8 billion. It will only take another 25 years to make 16 billion people - and that’s far too many.
The reason that meat animals are treated cruelly? Population. If you need to feed 8 billion people, you need fast, efficient meat processing - it doesn’t need to be cruel, but it is.
Deforestation? Population. If there are 8 billion people all wanting to use palm oil……
Pollution? Population. More people equals more pollution. 8 billion people will fill the planet with shit n plastic far quicker than 4 billion would.
You want to save the planet? Stop breeding.
I would suggest 8 of the following:
- Buy One Give One (BOGO). Toms Shoes has moved to embrace glasses. http://www.fastcompany.com/1758060/toms-glasses-the-newest-buy-one-get-one-product-from-toms-shoes
- Crowd sourced Giving.
- Micro-donations.
- Peer to Peer Lending
- Mobile giving
- More focus on earned income strategies (ie social innovation & social entrepreneurship--or at least conscious business like Whole Foods)
- More focus on results and social impact.
- Micro-franchise as a model for social entrepreneurship.
Here are 11 of some of the best answers to that question. The easiest to check out is probably t
I would suggest 8 of the following:
- Buy One Give One (BOGO). Toms Shoes has moved to embrace glasses. http://www.fastcompany.com/1758060/toms-glasses-the-newest-buy-one-get-one-product-from-toms-shoes
- Crowd sourced Giving.
- Micro-donations.
- Peer to Peer Lending
- Mobile giving
- More focus on earned income strategies (ie social innovation & social entrepreneurship--or at least conscious business like Whole Foods)
- More focus on results and social impact.
- Micro-franchise as a model for social entrepreneurship.
Here are 11 of some of the best answers to that question. The easiest to check out is probably the TED talk on the future of philanthropy.
Publications & Blogs about the Future of Philanthropy:
- http://www.tacticalphilanthropy.com/
- http://www.ssireview.org/articles/
- http://philanthropy.blogspot.com/
- http://philanthropy.com/
Events about the Future of Philanthropy (with online content)
- Social Impact Exchange Conference 2011: http://www.socialimpactexchange.org/symposium2011.cfm
- Social Capital Markets Conference: http://socialcapitalmarkets.net/
Other Resources to Check Out:
- Center for High Impact Philanthrophy at U Penn http://www.impact.upenn.edu/
- Trends in Philanthropy: http://philanthropy.com/article/Emerging-Forces-in-2010-/63434/
- Acumen Fund & Venture Philanthropy http://www.acumenfund.org/
- Future of Philanthropy http://www.futureofphilanthropy.org/cultiv_change.asp
- TED Talks http://blog.ted.com/2009/06/25/you_are_the_fut/
In my opinion if we want to solve social injustice problems we educate people. We don’t allow nut jobs to write a history book telling children slavery was good for black people. And we make decisions that people who perpetrate lies don’t have Free Speech but if they feel THAT strongly about their superiority myth, they should be willing to go to prison for it. There would be more than enough room for these dregs of society if we stopped prosecuting black people for the same crap white people get away with with a slap on the hand. Stop teaching nationalism and start teaching the truth.
Re-insta
In my opinion if we want to solve social injustice problems we educate people. We don’t allow nut jobs to write a history book telling children slavery was good for black people. And we make decisions that people who perpetrate lies don’t have Free Speech but if they feel THAT strongly about their superiority myth, they should be willing to go to prison for it. There would be more than enough room for these dregs of society if we stopped prosecuting black people for the same crap white people get away with with a slap on the hand. Stop teaching nationalism and start teaching the truth.
Re-instate the Fairness Doctrine in journalism.
Reduce the budget of the military and give public education the money. Vouchers are bullshit. My parents chose to send us to Lutheran school because they felt it was a superior education and no one patted their asses and offered to reimburse them. You want a private education, you pay for it. No reason you can’t attend public school free. Stop the “home schooling” idiots. Pay teachers a starting salary of $65,000 and test students who enter the teaching program. If they’re dysfunctional idiots tell them to switch to a business major.
Apply laws based on the law not on the lawyers. If a public defender is good for a black person then they’re plenty good for Harvey Weinstein. If you bankrupt your company you get a job and pay your creditors back because if someone gets cancer and ends up being unable to pay their medical bill they can’t file bankruptcy. Seems fair that a person who screws up a company gets punished the same as someone who got cancer. If you make a contract you need to fulfill it or do some hard time to learn that you can’t screw over people in a functional society.
Stop tolerating hate crimes. We put Nazis on trial and executed them. Now we let them march. That is real stupid.
Stop allowing people to behave in uncivilized fashions. The customer who makes sexually suggestive remarks to a clerk. The clerk ought to be able to reach over and punch the shit out of them. Sorry, but the problem in a civilized society is that a vast majority of people behave appropriately to others and absolutely zip happens to people who don’t behave decently. So bad people just keep on keeping on. When you were a kid, what stopped the bully? It was not a counseling session. And it is especially true of men’s treatment of women and LBGT people.
So long as the youth of America can see no future and no opportunity we will have a drug problem. Drug problems lead to crime. Crime demands punishment. We have to rehabilitate or we are just running a revolving door. We need to change the attitude of society. For god’s sake you forgave and forgot Kobe Bryant raping a woman but you have to get a pound of flesh from Leonard Pelletier. American justice is about money never about right or wrong.
Re-educate all cops. Take away all guns and start behaving like we’re in this together. Right now I know that cops don’t work for me, because I don’t have enough money. If cops are not held to a higher standard and are not expected to treat ALL citizens with the presumption of innocence then we are agreeing that some citizens are not valuable. How does that work? It doesn’t. If a cop isn’t intelligent and educated enough to use good judgement, get rid of him. Why was it important for Sandra Bland to extinguish her cigarette? It was nothing but power and control. Did you notice burn marks all over the cop’s face from drivers being stopped for a freaking taillight and flicking their cigarettes at him? Yeah, neither did I. This behavior is wrong because a traffic stop for an innocent person should not involve taking orders from some freak with a gun. I should not have to prove I’m not a criminal because my taillight is burned out. A normal person would have said “I’m sorry I have to write you a ticket for your taillight.” And that would have been that. If she bitched all he had to say was “It’s your car you need to maintain it.” Being angry about getting a ticket is pretty normal.
Stop killing people in foreign countries and telling people they are unAmerican if they don’t support the rich man’s myth that we deserve more than others and we have a right to take it. Teach people that if they don’t want Russians tromping around their city, chances are good the Afghans don’t like Americans tromping around Afghanistan. It ain’t rocket surgery! Honestly I read an interview with a soldier who was just indignant that Iraqis had the nerve to resent American soldiers. What kind of complete numbskull can’t figure out how pissed off he would be?
One of of the simplest things we could do is correct the language we use for “welfare”. Here’s the deal: if a woman raising her kids while attending college gets WELARE then all farmers and all corporations who receive government funds are also on WELFARE. it’s either a subsidy or it’s welfare but the only reason the language changes is because more women are the recipients of TANF, WIC and so forth. It’s total male bullshit. Stop allowing portions of society to duck the truth while making regular citizens face their situation.
Anyone who blames Unions for loss of American jobs should be publicly flogged. And all corporations who have manufacturing plants in foreign countries need to lose all Welfare.
No more investing retirement funds in the stock market. If you want to invest on a personal level, that’s your deal. But no more playing the slots with retirees money. In my opinion it is one of the things that has started the downward spiral of the country. And it is one of the reasons that no matter how criminal and negligent Wall Street and The Banksters were we had to bail them out. It’s not fair or honest.
Re-instate Glass-Steagell and stop allowing the foxes to write the rules for the hens. Stupidest behavior I have ever seen.
What is a problem in society that should have been solved decades ago?
The problem in society, that should have been solved decades ago is optimized human learning, thought, and understanding as can be afforded with intelligent interactive education as proved capable back in 1990. This one problem in society, by itself alone, becomes a solution-creating-solution that allows humans to improve their own condition, in each and every situation, for the rest of their lives.
The acceleration of learning afforded with interactive education allows for information absorption at a rate that is limited onl
What is a problem in society that should have been solved decades ago?
The problem in society, that should have been solved decades ago is optimized human learning, thought, and understanding as can be afforded with intelligent interactive education as proved capable back in 1990. This one problem in society, by itself alone, becomes a solution-creating-solution that allows humans to improve their own condition, in each and every situation, for the rest of their lives.
The acceleration of learning afforded with interactive education allows for information absorption at a rate that is limited only by the comfort factor of each student which varies on many levels. When the course is ready, when the student is ready, while the student does not have to wait for commute to school, school bells, school schedules, recess, classroom changes, commute from school, teacher’s inequities, and most importantly the arbitrary and capricious delivery of the information with the teacher’s bias of choice, the student becomes the only limitation to their accelerated learning rate.
This problem in society will not be solved by government, ever. This problem was created by government. The saddest part of the problem is the fact that human evolution in understanding was swept under the rug to save the jobs of public school teachers nationwide.
Be sure to thank your US Department of Education for it’s priorities over the evolution of human kind.
Climate change. Mass extinctions.
No, that isn’t right. There is no country that benefits from their efforts to reduce carbon emissions. For example, if the U.S. reduced carbon emissions, that helps everyone, not just the U.S. They best outcome for the U.S. is if everyone else reduces carbon emissions and we do not.
So, the countries need to be able to work together. That holds for climate change, overfishing, dumping into the ocean, and whatever the next danger is. Humans now have too much power to destroy.
Of course, this is the same reasoning that causes individual people to form tribes and st
Climate change. Mass extinctions.
No, that isn’t right. There is no country that benefits from their efforts to reduce carbon emissions. For example, if the U.S. reduced carbon emissions, that helps everyone, not just the U.S. They best outcome for the U.S. is if everyone else reduces carbon emissions and we do not.
So, the countries need to be able to work together. That holds for climate change, overfishing, dumping into the ocean, and whatever the next danger is. Humans now have too much power to destroy.
Of course, this is the same reasoning that causes individual people to form tribes and states to form a country, when leads to laws to prohibit things like pollution, noise ordinances, etc.
As an AI language model, I don't have personal opinions or beliefs, but I can provide information on social issues that are widely recognized as significant. One major social problem that many people consider urgent and in need of immediate attention is climate change and its associated environmental challenges.
At present, numerous actions are being taken worldwide to address climate change. The Paris Agreement, an international treaty signed in 2015, aims to limit global warming to well below 2 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels. Many countries have committed to reducing greenhouse g
As an AI language model, I don't have personal opinions or beliefs, but I can provide information on social issues that are widely recognized as significant. One major social problem that many people consider urgent and in need of immediate attention is climate change and its associated environmental challenges.
At present, numerous actions are being taken worldwide to address climate change. The Paris Agreement, an international treaty signed in 2015, aims to limit global warming to well below 2 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels. Many countries have committed to reducing greenhouse gas emissions, transitioning to renewable energy sources, and implementing sustainability measures. There are also ongoing efforts to raise awareness about climate change and promote individual actions like reducing carbon footprints and adopting more environmentally friendly lifestyles.
In the future, it is essential to continue and intensify these efforts to combat climate change effectively. This includes accelerating the transition to renewable energy, investing in green technologies and infrastructure, and promoting sustainable practices in sectors such as transportation, agriculture, and industry. Collaboration among governments, businesses, and individuals will be crucial in implementing comprehensive strategies to mitigate the impact of climate change and adapt to its effects.
It's worth noting that while climate change is often highlighted as a pressing issue, other social problems such as poverty, inequality, access to education and healthcare, and human rights violations also require attention. The prioritization of these issues may vary depending on the context and the perspectives of different individuals and communities.
Philanthropy plays little to no role in ending homelessness. If it did, California would've ended homelessness. If it it did, Seattle wouldn't waste billions on homelessness.
You can't convince somebody to be a better person simply by giving them free things or even giving them free housing. When given free housing, they destroy it, they showed it well during Covid. The hotels had to be renovated.
Look at section 8 housing, they are disgusting and become destroyed quite quickly. The people have no investment into the property, therefore they destroy it.
Andrew Carnegie opened up 3000 free lending libraries so working people could get a hold of books to read that they otherwise could not have afforded to buy. Carnegie promoted education, culture and literacy through his voluntary philanthropic activities. He also funded Carnegie Hall so the public could hear good music and established the Carnegie Foundation to promote useful research and innovation, some of which would not have directly benefited his steel making firms.
There are a number of instances of aid having gone wrong.
There are also great examples of aid having helped but this question is not about that
.
Some of failure could have been foreseen by just pausing to think and look back. Most of the failures were deemed so only in hindsight or when the context changed.
In the first category are
1. Structural Readjustment Programmes hawked by the World Bank an
There are a number of instances of aid having gone wrong.
There are also great examples of aid having helped but this question is not about that
.
Some of failure could have been foreseen by just pausing to think and look back. Most of the failures were deemed so only in hindsight or when the context changed.
In the first category are
1. Structural Readjustment Programmes hawked by the World Bank and the IMF in poor countries for instance. William Easterly does a great job of de-constructing this in his book White Man's Burden as does Dambisa Moyo in Dead Aid
2. Food Aid and unconditional cash transfers over a long period of time in chronically food insecure areas in Africa have been known to deliver short term gains but resulting in long term dependence of the poor on aid. Local economies in large parts of Africa are known to be dependent on aid.
In the second category are experiments like
1. Non Formal Schooling in South Asia which has been touted as a huge success. UNICEF put in a huge amount of funds in it. But what does it actually do? It lets the State off the hook when it comes to responsibility of delivering quality education. We end up with sub-standard teachers imparting useless ‘education’ to uninterested students. This ‘education’ barely keeps the kids off the ‘illiterate’ list and yet leaves ...
First of all you must legislate that “all men are created equal.” You will never have progress unless most of the people are being dealt with fairly. You have to have public officials , particularly judges be scrupulous in fair treatment of everyone that comes before them.
Next, you need to make sure every citizen feels the government will not abuse them for speaking their mind.
And you need to make sure that a citizen can defend himself in instances of great threat without being punished.
Then you need to make sure government must prove their accusations in a court of law with judgment of peers.
First of all you must legislate that “all men are created equal.” You will never have progress unless most of the people are being dealt with fairly. You have to have public officials , particularly judges be scrupulous in fair treatment of everyone that comes before them.
Next, you need to make sure every citizen feels the government will not abuse them for speaking their mind.
And you need to make sure that a citizen can defend himself in instances of great threat without being punished.
Then you need to make sure government must prove their accusations in a court of law with judgment of peers.
There can be no harsh or unusual punishments.
With all of this in place people will feel government is “fair” and they will comply with reasonable government directions including paying taxes.
Of course individual citizens will from time to time have disputes with other citizens. Ideally, every citizens will be fair with their fellow citizen. If not the justice system can “settle” disputes.
These solutions are not perfect. But you must recognize that perfection is the enemy of good. The best we can hope for are “good solutions” to social problems, not perfect solutions. We are after all human, and not perfectable.
Most wealthy people run charities aimed at improving the conditions of challenged segments of society. I do not know, how effective these are in actually solving social problems. But at least they seem to be solving the tax problems of the rich philanthropists. That's a relief don't you think?
Artificially select OUT the gophers that are digging in the garden of our well-being and divy up their money.
Solve your own life first, and create the best version of yourself. Once you are confident and happy in your own body and your own head, your social life will automatically follow. Having a social life for the sake of having a social life is not worth it, then you’re going to pick people that are not compatible with you.
It’s very important that you invest everything you have into being the best you. Once you are the best and the most ‘’you’’-version of yourself, people who enjoy the company will gravitate towards you.
Obviously there is better nutrition, exercise, sleep, focus, habits, etc. Tho
Solve your own life first, and create the best version of yourself. Once you are confident and happy in your own body and your own head, your social life will automatically follow. Having a social life for the sake of having a social life is not worth it, then you’re going to pick people that are not compatible with you.
It’s very important that you invest everything you have into being the best you. Once you are the best and the most ‘’you’’-version of yourself, people who enjoy the company will gravitate towards you.
Obviously there is better nutrition, exercise, sleep, focus, habits, etc. Those come first. After that, try cold-approaching people. Whoever. A good looking person, a random old person, a cashier, doesn’t matter. Just start talking. Once you keep this habit up, you will slowly get more confident in talking. In the start it’s going to be hard and awkward in your head. But that’s necessary.
Starting something new and unknown is always hard. But the rewards are there!
Which ones?
A whole lot of them could be solved by any and all billionaires giving up all but one of their billions (which would still be more money than any sane person could spend on themselves in a lifetime), and giving those extra billions to the poor, to hospitals, to builders of economical housing, to small-farm farmers, to food banks, and we would still have enough left for everyone to have a trip to Disney World. Oops. Now we have created more multi-billionaires, mostly in the Disney corporation upper management. So let us repeat the process.
What issues does society have to resolve in the next fifty years? The issues of its survival. On the face of it, that is not a new proposition. Every major military technological development, whether the catapult, the long bow, or dynamite was advanced by some as the doomsday weapon because in its time, it posed a considerable threat. However, that threat impacted only the immediate opponent. The threats that face current and forthcoming society are not just military, fearsome and devastating as they might be, but many are insidious, creeping up on us without drums or trumpets, only lone voice
What issues does society have to resolve in the next fifty years? The issues of its survival. On the face of it, that is not a new proposition. Every major military technological development, whether the catapult, the long bow, or dynamite was advanced by some as the doomsday weapon because in its time, it posed a considerable threat. However, that threat impacted only the immediate opponent. The threats that face current and forthcoming society are not just military, fearsome and devastating as they might be, but many are insidious, creeping up on us without drums or trumpets, only lone voices proclaiming some though not all of them, and even then only to be mostly ignored, like that of Cassandra’s of old. In order to understand why sheer survival must be the quintessential issue for society to resolve, one needs to consider what society is today, where it is heading, and what conditions may be operating even now, and more severely in the future, to pose an existential threat to humanity’s continued existence. So, let us consider society today. That society is no longer a city state or a nation, but what has been called the global village: want it or not, we are all constrained by our existence on this one planet, earth. That planet’s surface has remained fairly constant over the several million years of humanoid existence, especially over the third or so of a million years of the existence of our own species, H. sap. True, there have been periods of vast glaciation as well as periods of periodic droughts, floods, and other major upheavals. Undoubtedly, many of our remote ancestors died during those upheavals. But hominid species were dispersed over most of the globe, and even our own species left Africa some hundred thousand years ago to roam the rest of the world. They even managed to get to Australia some 50,000 years ago, though no one has any idea how. Because they were so widely dispersed, because both local and world wide populations were small, because they could pick up and go elsewhere since the earth was mostly unoccupied, and because they lived on natural, local bounty, no single natural disaster wiped them out. At the time of Julius Caesar, some 2000 years ago, the total population of the world is estimated to have been no more than about 200 million. It took a thousand and a half years, 1,500 years or so, for the population to increase by less than three fold to some half billion. It took just a third of that time for the population to increase by more than fifteen fold to the current level of something under eight billion. To the best of our knowledge, throughout millennia, from China to Spain, from Africa to England, and throughout the Americas as well, people were periodically on the move in large numbers, but large only in terms of size relative to the times. Alexander the Great’s troops, which conquered most of the “known world” of the time, numbered between 15,000 and 35,000, the exact number being unknown. By contrast, in WW1 Germany mobilized over ten million men, and in WW2 some 13 million into the army, plus those in the navy, the air force, and the special services. If one assumes that Alexander’s army was 35,000 strong, the world population 100 million, while at the time of the World Wars the German military commitment was 15 million and the world population two billion, then the proportion of the populace committed to attack increased some 20 fold in relation to the world population. And Alexander won his world, while Germany lost both wars. This is just one datum to indicate the extent to which the commitment of rulers to warfare has grown, a commitment to destruction of just the personnel. Of course, everyone is now aware of the nuclear weapons, chemical weapons, and even biological weapons such as could be wrought from e.g. anthrax, smallpox, etc. However, even more sophisticated biological weaponry can be devised in the form of genetically targeted agents that might affect only people bearing specific DNA. Delivery of those weapons in under constant refinement, meaning better targeted and more extensive destruction. Space weapons are on the brink, which can have the power to destroy just by their mass and speed, like meteors, similar in kind, if not necessarily in power (but that is debatable) to the asteroid that wiped out the dinosaurs 60 million years ago. Yet all this, the potential for overt warfare and its accompanying weaponry, is but a known particle of the whole iceberg of which, just as in the case of a real iceberg, most lies underwater or, in our case, beneath general notice. Still easily noticed, however, are the relatively petty ones, like the rulers of North Korea or Iran, and the by no means petty, like the rulers of Russia or China, or even our own USA. By accident or design, but in oblivion of the ultimate consequences, born of paranoia, egotism, or desire to bolster their tenure, their actions may precipitate the extinction of humanity. Their focus is on the present, their vision limited by the walls of their offices, their interest utterly restricted to the retention of their position. And yet, as I said, those are the obvious threats. So let us look a little below the surface, so to speak. The growth of the population may continue to slow down – or not. China had a one child per family policy, but discarded it. The religious of all kinds advocate unlimited breeding without consideration of the consequences. Education often lags far behind health initiatives that contribute to large families, while local conditions, such as dependence on child labor or lack of a social support matrix for the elderly, promote large families. Those well off may feel entitled to more children because they can support them; those who are poor may feel obliged to have more children because they expect to need them, or simply because they either know no better or cannot afford to prevent their conception. So we do not really know whether the world’s population will stabilize, continue to grow at the current pace, or even accelerate. In 25 years, we may well expect the world population to reach 10 billion or so. Improvements in health care and longer lifespan may increase that figure considerably, while wars and other disasters may decrease it. However, much of that population still lives in poverty, or for other reasons without access to modern technology. As their economic and social conditions improve, so will their demand for current technology, from refrigerators, air conditioners, and washing machines, to cell phones and transportation devices, or whatever passes for such items tens of years hence. The demand is certain to increase even faster than may be expected from just the population growth. But that means a correspondingly, but disproportionately, increased demand for energy, resources to produce the devices, and eventually, means of disposal of what cannot be recycled, i.e. waste. In turn, energy usage generates heat, and derivation of resources, whether chemicals to grow more food or other chemicals to make gadgets, requires digging the earth (unless by then one can mine asteroids) and creating more spoilage. So we would have more people, more heat, greater unpredictability and instability of weather, more waste, but ever diminishing irreplaceable resources, whether lithium (or whatever) for batteries, oil or gas for combustion engines, or other essentials. So the resources become depleted, but where does the waste go, and of what kind is it? No matter what we do, some waste is toxic and other is not degradable. So even if we bury it, that waste interferes with our aquifers (if any remain) and enters, or seeps, into the oceans. There, it not only kills fish and whales, but the plankton that generates the oxygen we must breathe to live. Oceans, that supply most oxygen, are already producing far less oxygen than they used to. Tropical forests that supplied most of the rest of the oxygen are being cut down to provide arable land. Thus we have melted ice caps, raised seas, inundated coastal lands and islands, and where do the affected people go, in their hundreds of millions? Note how much disruption in Europe and elsewhere has been wrought by just a few million refugees. Now multiply that by a hundredfold. Populists cry for action, autocrats want to remain in power, riots and revolutions may occur, but the fundamental problem of those in power is to remain there and to do so, they must effect control over the populace. Terror only works so far; provision of essentials works farther. So wars for access to the dwindling resources, and to contain the fleeing masses, whether internal or external, become the name of the game. Of course, any such endeavor only increases the chaos and further depletes the available resources, deepening the problems. Then, there is the matter of diversity of population, of whatever kind. In good times, differences may be tolerated, even welcomed, for they foster innovation. But given bad times, like clings to like and any stranger is an enemy. Yes, there is the milk of human kindness, there are people whose humanity never wanes. Unfortunately, under stress, most people revert to the basic animals we are. We defend our tribe, then our family, then ourselves. As discord increases, a vicious circle ensues. Evolution has put us at the top of the food chain for a reason: we are survivors. But we cannot survive if we interrupt that food chain. Yet, that is exactly what we have been doing, continue to do, and are indeed accelerating the process. We need the productive land, fresh water, and plentiful oxygen. We can live two to three weeks without food, two to three days without water, two to three minutes without oxygen. We have cities with millions of inhabitants, living on food brought from all over the world; how long will those people live if the transport of food is interrupted, for unlike our ancestors, hunter gatherers or farmers, almost none of those people would find a place to farm even if they knew how, or had the initial supplies. How long would they live, if their water became contaminated or was cut off? And they would live for barely a few minutes if the oceans failed their task of oxygen production – and yes, they are failing, though not critically so as yet. In this, I have outlined but a few of the problems that are upon us and growing. The cause of those problems, to paraphrase, is not in the stars, but in ourselves, in our seeming inability and unwillingness to appreciate the consequences of our actions, and of the very traits that evolution built into us for survival under completely different conditions. The one trait that evolution granted us to enable us to survive is our ability to think. But we have evolved to think selfishly, in general, though occasionally some exhibit more social responsibility. Perhaps it is an outcome of overcrowding. A study of apes once had shown cohesion in a small society, but growing aggression as the number of the apes increased. We may well behave similarly. But now, we must exert ourselves to reverse that frame; we do not have to demonstrate that we are apes still. We must think of all, to save each one of us. As has been said, if we do not hang together, we shall surely hang separately (attributed to Benjamin Franklin). We must reorganize our governmental systems to become managers of public welfare, not polticos intent on party and self. We must contain our population. We must use technology for devices with long lives, to reduce the demand for resources, energy and disposal of waste whether inert or toxic. Drastic as it may seem, we must revise the whole concept of an economy based on advertising, expanding sales, excessive diversion of effort to the expenditure of communal wealth (the resources of the earth) for individual profit – our version of the “tragedy of the commons”. We must refrain from using “beliefs” based on fancy and not fact to divide us, whether we call them religion or some “ism”, to disrupt our world society, and bring destruction and waste. We must shun demagogues who enhance societal divisions and favor those who would bring reconciliation and compromise. We must learn more, know more, think more about consequences, and favor those who do better, not those who promise more. We must learn to use our brains, or let those who can prove that they can use their brains, to reduce the risks that we have created, or we must accept the inevitability of our nearing extinction, an extinction no different to that which had happened in the past to a vast majority of species (and is even now happening to many), for the same reason as our own pending extinction, an inability to adapt to the changing circumstances. Though in our case, it is we who have created those circumstances, and if we are to survive, it is up to us to face up to them and change them, by changing ourselves. As evolution has ever demanded, adapt, or perish: the time is now.
Governments (local, state, national) can help to reduce or even solve social problems in one of three ways, at least. Of course, you have to bear in mind that social problems are usually not 100% solvable. No matter how much effort schools, government agencies, and charities expend there will still be illiteracy, for example, the rate of illiteracy may drop dramatically, say from 30% to 3% in a couple of decades. This is what “solving a social problem” really looks like.
Homelessness is another social problem that can be addressed by the government, but never solved by anyone. Aside from wars a
Governments (local, state, national) can help to reduce or even solve social problems in one of three ways, at least. Of course, you have to bear in mind that social problems are usually not 100% solvable. No matter how much effort schools, government agencies, and charities expend there will still be illiteracy, for example, the rate of illiteracy may drop dramatically, say from 30% to 3% in a couple of decades. This is what “solving a social problem” really looks like.
Homelessness is another social problem that can be addressed by the government, but never solved by anyone. Aside from wars and natural disasters, many things cause a person to end up homeless. Drug addiction, mental illness, domestic violence, and long-term unemployment can all put a person on the streets. Often, more than one cause is involved. Mary might have a drinking problem, no real job skills, and no friends. Social isolation can be another contributor to homelessness.
Governments could enact laws or policies that address all of those causes of homelessness, but no law or policy is ever going to eliminate homelessness. That is an unrealistic standard.
Further, government policy can be restrained by laws and customs. People who need housing could be taken care of if the city government seized abandoned homes or businesses and converted them into temporary living quarters. Easy, right? But under what authority will the relevant government agency take those abandoned properties.
And, if they take the properties, how will they pay? Even if they get the properties for nothing, there is the cost of renovating those properties because most will be in terrible shape. So, money also imposes serious limits on the government.
First of all the government has to have a heart transplant so that they actually care about the people they govern.
Second they need glasses and hearing aides so that they can see the problems and hear the suffering going on around them.
Then they need to experience poverty and homelessness, family abuse and disease for an extended period so that they can empathise with and understand why they should help.
An education in science, statistics, logic, ethics and alternative political theories is essential so that they understand that the problems are not individual but part of the existing system.
First of all the government has to have a heart transplant so that they actually care about the people they govern.
Second they need glasses and hearing aides so that they can see the problems and hear the suffering going on around them.
Then they need to experience poverty and homelessness, family abuse and disease for an extended period so that they can empathise with and understand why they should help.
An education in science, statistics, logic, ethics and alternative political theories is essential so that they understand that the problems are not individual but part of the existing system. It should be a requirement that all politicians have a degree in something other than business.
Now they should be ready to act.
Step one: remove half the budget from the military (it’s the people’s tax money anyway)…
That’s easy! Send all moneys to me!
I am developing the next generation contraceptive, a contraceptive vaccine. It is almost working. It just needs another year or two of research. Then, once it has proven 100% effective in mice and non-human primates, we will have human trials in which females will be injected with the vaccine. The result is expected to be 1 to 2 years of contraception with no action necessary, no hormonal disruption, no surgery, no implants, no side effects, and a minimal cost. Overpopulation is the root cause of all things anthropogenic, including climate change, deforestati
That’s easy! Send all moneys to me!
I am developing the next generation contraceptive, a contraceptive vaccine. It is almost working. It just needs another year or two of research. Then, once it has proven 100% effective in mice and non-human primates, we will have human trials in which females will be injected with the vaccine. The result is expected to be 1 to 2 years of contraception with no action necessary, no hormonal disruption, no surgery, no implants, no side effects, and a minimal cost. Overpopulation is the root cause of all things anthropogenic, including climate change, deforestation, and plastic in the ocean. What global environmental issue would not be easier to solve if there were less humans on the planet? So let’s start by making every child a wanted child. Studies have shown that population growth would be cut by half simply by providing effective contraception to all.
Send your gifts directly to me. I will use the money wisely. ;-)
References:
Nand, K. N., Jordan, T. B., Yuan, X., Basore, D. A., Zagorevski, D., Clarke, C., ... & Bystroff, C. (2023). Bacterial production of recombinant contraceptive vaccine antigen from CatSper displayed on a human papilloma virus-like particle. Vaccine, 41(46), 6791-6801.