What are the biggest problems facing the world today?

Kanzler

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    As we move swiftly into the year 2014, it's clear that it's not all new year new beginnings. Misery and tragedy still ravage the world, and we sons continue to pay for the sins of our fathers - or perhaps the sins of mankind.

    What are the biggest problems facing the world today? What would you rank to the most important? Which problems do you think are overblown and overexposed? Which problems do you think people don't talk about enough?

    Here's a list of problems to help get you started:

    • hunger/thirst
    • poverty, terrorism
    • armed conflict
    • resource depletion
    • overpopulation
    • pandemics
    • running out of fossil fuels/energy crisis
    • proliferation of weapons of mass destruction
    • mass extinctions
    • mass surveillance
     
    There is a mass douches too. All the people out there that don't care about anything unless it directly involves their pleasures. The world is slowly becoming ignorant and hateful to others.
     
    Controversial? said:
    The biggest problem facing the world today is that the world's biggest powers aren't properly dealing with the problems the world is facing because they're busy squabbling over who gets the biggest Lego pieces.
    Click to expand...

    I don't think its as much as the biggest lego as it is for the most legos.
     
    Haha, could you have chosen a more broad topic, John?

    I honestly don't know where to begin; the world is riddled with countless problems and it's really difficult to rank them by gravity. Wealth disparity, racial discrimination, power-hungry leaders, world hunger, hypersexualised societies, materialistic mindsets, needless wars, struggles for global hegemony, etc. etc...

    You know when you've had a really big party at your house, and the messy aftermath is so overwhelming that you don't even know how to approach cleaning it? That's what our world feels like right now. But anyway...despite what I sound like, I do in fact think things can change. I mean, what's the point in giving up, eh? Humans are resilient. We'll find a way.

    Here's to hoping we'll make out alright in the end, guys.
     
    I don't think we will ever solve such problems, particularly poverty and terrorism. What we've also got to understand though if we are to ever seriously try and fix these issues, is that there's about one or two in the list the OP provided that actually cause a lot of the rest of them.

    Eg. Overpopulation has a direct influence on poverty, world hunger/thirst. Resource depletion can lead to conflict and terrorism which in-turn would inflate the rate at which nuclear weaponry is manufactured etc.

    If we are to properly address these issues, they need to be dealt with at their roots and not their leaves.
     
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    Controversial? said:
    or Duplo. The world powers probably aren't allowed Lego because it contains small parts that can be swallowed.
    Click to expand...

    Lmfao. Mega blocks. But to two people ^ ^ up above are right. There is problems that cauae others, people have yes become resilient but there are still people out there knowing what they do sucks popsicles but do it for power. Like terrorist groups are hungry for power, presidents, owners, sometimes even your best friends. This world is metaphorically going to hell because once there is the big snap. Everyone will turn crazy.
     
    As what Grimsley said, most of the problems listed are all linked to overpopulation. Because we stay in urban areas, since most of the land don't have the right conditions for us humans to live on, resources will start depleting, hunger and thirst start to increase due to said depleting resources, and poverty increases due to lack of new homes. Even if we do try to expand our urban territory, we'll only cause mass extinction to the wildlife who live next to us by destroying their homes. This is why there's negative views on humans by extraterrestrial forces and entities from different forms of mediums, because we're too selfish to care about what's going on around us until it affects our lives, but by then, the damage has already been done. Hence why there's a concern about what will happen to the world by 2050.
     
    Many of these are related, and some can trigger others. Overpopulation can facilitate the spread of pandemics, which in turn strains resources and can lead to famine and other shortages and exhausting of other natural resources. Which in turn can facilitate the conditions for war and militarism. (Surveillance) It's a vicious cycle, and it's hard to pinpoint one that's more important than the others. I'd have to go with loss of resources, because you can't fight off disease without antibiotics, a resource. You can't feed people and bring them out of poverty without some surplus food, medicine, and other various supplies to fuel them. You can't build tanks, computers, or planes without steel, aluminum, gold, silicon, etc. And a mad grab for resources, in a true capitalist fashion, has fueled the horrible wars - which cause famines, which facilitate the spread of diseases, etc.,- of the last 150 years or so in human history. Funny how interwoven these things can be.
     
    The biggest problems are large-scale problems (such as war, famine, etc.) and not so much individual stuff (such as crime, etc.)

    So although the world is the best it's ever been on average, we still have a lot to work on to fix the people who skew the number down. And it should be that way.
     
    Probably not the biggest problem we have but I'm sick of poor people breeding like rabbits. Yes money isn't everything when it comes to raising kids, but so many parents in low socioeconomic areas get pregnant as if it should be an annual event, even if they don't have the means to support their children properly.

    It seems like there's almost no concept of responsibility among poor people, like they are just seeking instant gratification then they worry about the consequences later, if at all. It makes it really hard to have empathy for some of these struggling parents when the majority of the time they are the ones who get themselves into these dispositions, then seek government assistance and complain about not getting enough help. It's like a never-ending cycle of monkey see, monkey do. I just feel bad for the children.
     
    For me, the #1 problem with the world would be corrupt governments. Lately all they've been doing is taking the glory of our countries & giving it to themselves. It's all about them, & not us ordinary townsfolk.

    Other things that deserve mention would be the distribution of hard drugs, such as Cocaine, obesity being widespread, the preservation of nature, among many other things.
     
    I think the single biggest problem facing the world today is that too many people have too much power over other people's lives, especially on the part of governments. I'm a firm believer that no person can be trusted with power over other people's lives. There's obviously more problems than just this, but I think this is the biggest one because when someone is controlling other people's lives, then people are less free to solve their own problems.
     
    Is it really governments that have too much control over people's lives? Aside from surveillance, I think for the most part governments have relinquished controls in peoples lives. The inequality in income and wealth can be explained by the increase of power of the market and the decreasing power of the state. It occurs because government is shrinking and less able to intervene and shield us citizens from inequalities that would be inherent in a free market. Of course government runs itself - it made the decision to reduce its control over the economy, but while it may be the government's 'fault' in the first place, there's less of the government to blame than there once was.

    I think the most pressing threat to our society is the lack of economic opportunity. When people do not have jobs, they'll protest. Whether or not protests make a meaningful difference is never clear, but you can be sure that people will be happy if they have money in their pockets and food in their stomachs.

    In the long run, I would have to say the biggest problem is resource depletion. But asteroid mining is a way to get around that, if we survive for long enough.
     
    I think the biggest problem is the amount of corrupt leaders in this world. We have so many leaders who take all the money for themselves rather than spread it around to all the people in poverty. Even in the more successful places, there is a lot of money that is kept for their own personal gain.

    If we made it to where everyone could live comfortably rather than going days without eating, this world would be a better place.
     
    BlahISuck said:
    Is it really governments that have too much control over people's lives? Aside from surveillance, I think for the most part governments have relinquished controls in peoples lives. The inequality in income and wealth can be explained by the increase of power of the market and the decreasing power of the state. It occurs because government is shrinking and less able to intervene and shield us citizens from inequalities that would be inherent in a free market. Of course government runs itself - it made the decision to reduce its control over the economy, but while it may be the government's 'fault' in the first place, there's less of the government to blame than there once was.

    I think the most pressing threat to our society is the lack of economic opportunity. When people do not have jobs, they'll protest. Whether or not protests make a meaningful difference is never clear, but you can be sure that people will be happy if they have money in their pockets and food in their stomachs.

    In the long run, I would have to say the biggest problem is resource depletion. But asteroid mining is a way to get around that, if we survive for long enough.
    Click to expand...

    I didn't mean that governments are the only thing with too much control over people's lives, just the biggest. I think that in any case where one person has power over another, problems arise. History has shown that lack of economic opportunity (almost) always stems from someone else in power getting in the way of it. This also applies to employers and corporations having too much power over people's lives. I agree that businesses shouldn't have too much power over people's lives, but solving it by giving a government more power over people's lives is like trading the flu for cancer.
     
    Overbearing government infringes upon people's liberties. More laws creates more need to turn former law-abiding citizen into criminals.

    Given all the surveillance and cronyism that's going on in the government today, it boggles my mind why people continue to trust them over corporations. At least with corporations you have some amount of transparency in that you can always rely on them to be after profit, which to me makes them fourscore more trustworthy than government. If I'm working for a corporation, at least I can choose to walk away. With government, I can't choose to walk away from taxes, social security, etc, otherwise they hold me at gunpoint and lock me in a cage.

    I don't know what to do about the world's problems today, but more government doesn't sound like the answer to me. You want to help people? Do it yourself.

    Don't like that there are poor people around? Make your own money and then give it to them...you have the right to do that. But don't have other people force others at gunpoint to give up something that they don't want to give up.
    Don't like guns? Don't buy one and come up with reasons for other people to not buy one, but don't ask Big Daddy to take them away from responsible collectors, target shooters, and others who have their own lifestyle that revolves around them.
    Don't like gay marriage? Fine, don't have one. But don't force others to not have one.
    Don't like abortion? Fine, don't get one. But don't have the state relinquish other's rights to have one against their will.
     
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    White people. Seriously, think about it. Major global conflicts, mass surveillance, over population, pollution, extinction of wildlife and plants, diseases, My Little Pony, paedophillia, racism, world hunger, obesity, poverty, slavery, fatophobia, homophobia, transphobia, and every other phobia. The list just goes on and on, and they all can be attributed to white people.
     
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