World's Biggest Problems (and Solutions!)

1.)    Arguing, Blaming, not enough cooperation and respect.

 Have you watched the Democratic debate or the GOP debate? It’s full of back and forth point of views on who can do it better or what they could have prevented. It doesn’t just happen with politicians, we can see it all over the place with people just like you and me. This whole blame game needs to stop and we really need to realize we are all the same. Take a step back and listen to each other with respect. Collaboration is key in my opinion.

2.)    Mass Shootings

This is a very touchy subject since there has been so many in the last couple years and a lot of innocent people have lost loved ones through mass shootings. I won’t touch too much into this but this is something I wished we can oversee a bit more. Tighter gun control and background checks could be a solution to limiting some but not all of them. But I believe it’s the only viable solution at hand.

3.)    Unemployment

One of the things I worry about most is my future job security. I hear it time and time again on the news about how employment is trending up but I also hear a lot of stories of layoffs and underemployment. I also read that the younger people are more vulnerable to underemployment. I think the best solution for this is to bring some jobs back to the states so that we can get the people in our country back to work.

4.)    South Korea vs. North Korea

I am South Korean and this is something I look at closely every day. I keep up with updates from a South Korean media every day and try to see what happening. North Korea has been getting bolder and has been flexing their muscles more in the past couple months and this is very disconcerting. I think the best thing to do in this problematical situation is to just watch over it and see what transpires. After all we are the same people at war with each other. Last thing I would want to see is an all-out confrontation.

5.)    Poverty

I know this is a global issue but I want to focus just here in the States alone. When I first heard the numbers of Americans in poverty, I was stunned. According povertyusa.org, 46.2 million Americans currently live in poverty and a whopping 1.6 million children lived in shelters or an emergency housing in 2015 alone. Imagine living day to day not knowing if you are going to have something to eat for your next meal. For this problem, things I can do to help are outreach programs, donations and maybe even service work. I believe a lot of people don’t know how severe it is here in our back yard. We need to inform and that way more people are willing to support.

6.)    Terrorism

The act of violence to frighten people in a way to accomplish what they want. Internationally and here in the states, we have all seen or heard of these horrifying terrorist attacks that has caused many deaths. Extremist values and ideology mixed with people who are willing to die for the cause is frightening and something that is hard to stop. However, I believe if all the nations work together to fight back and try to prevent as many as possible, we can try to limit these dangerous ideology from spreading and in turn prevent additional attacks.

7.)    Clean water crisis

With a growing population around the globe, the amount of clean water to sustain our life is decreasing. Since we all need water to survive, this is a major cause for concern. We need to carefully conserve, manage, and allocate whatever we have left accordingly.

8.)    Income inequality

You will probably hear about this a lot from presidential candidates and how they will try to tackle this issue. Statistics show that in the US, the disproportion of wealth is becoming greater and mainly is due to region, gender, and social status. There are a lot of ways economists think we can try to limit this disparity but this will take a long time. Changing rules/laws such as raising the minimum wage, removing tax loopholes, penalizing companies for outsourcing overseas and many others are ways economists think we can fix it.

9.)    Global Warming

There is no way that the way humans live has no effect on the environment. While the government does look over corporations and limit them on what they can and not do, I believe this issue is something that everyone has to buy into. Everyone has to help one way or another or else it won’t make a big dent.

10.)  Racism

Racism - Belief that one race is inferior or superior and the hatred and discrimination towards a group of people... I think we all need to realize we are all the same and that everyone deserves to be treated the same way. Education and open communication between everyone might be a solution to all of this. Trying to understand where everyone is coming from is also important as well.