Wow, I was actually surprised this thread got some decent posts/insights. I haven't read all the statements but I plan on looking at all of them later tonight. Some of my points were a little harsh (aka burn the fed building down); I was just in a very grouchy mood yesterday. I already see some good rebuttals to my statements. Measures need to be taken soon to get the country in the right direction again. My main concern is still the debt.
Healthcare costs need stop rising as fast as they are in USA. Healthcare will probably be the trickiest topic to touch. While I don't support the government taking over the healthcare system entirely; I don't see how it could be much worse (price wise) than the system we have now. If costs of healthcare are far exceeding inflation then it is easy to see that something needs to be done soon. Perhaps ban drug companies from advertising their drugs (doctors should be the ones prescribing drugs not the patient going to the doctor for a drug), allow Medicaid/Medicare programs to bargain with drug companies or perhaps other nations for cheaper drugs, look at hospitals/doctors overcharging (I went in for appendicitis a few years back (didn't have insurance), cost of the surgery, MRI or whatever they used to scan to make sure it was, anesthesia, and surgery all cost about 4-5k without insurance; the hospital then charged I think 20k for one night stay, check up every so often, and pain medicine). Basically, I could have just went home with some pain medicine and been fine after the surgery. How is that the diagnosis, anesthesia, and surgery cost 5k without insurance and the one night hospital stay cost 20k? Probably because the hospital knew they were going to write it off to the government for tax credit so they loaded it up with bullshit charges. Sorry for being apart of the uninsured problem (least the surgeon, anesthesiologist, radiologist, and pathologist all got paid).
One other topic that should be mentioned is the rising cost of education (specifically college). College tuition has risen almost at the same rate as healthcare. I moved to Texas back in 2000 and went to school at Texas Tech. At that time they just deregulated universities in Texas saying that it would lead to a decrease in tuition. After deregulation tuition rates jumped every year almost double then the years they were regulated. A semester at Texas Tech in 2000 used to cost around 3k now it probably cost around 4-5k. So in ten years the tuition has almost doubled. That doesn't seem too fair to me.
High schools need to stop spending all the tax money on grand stadiums for their high school football teams. School is to learn. Sports should be almost an afterthought. You don't need a huge stadium to play football in. You just need a field, some bleachers for the fans, and perhaps lights for night games. The emphasis on sports needs to be lowered a little. I love sports (played soccer, football, basketball, baseball) and there should be a place for them (help keep kids out of trouble, etc). However, the spending on them needs to curbed (especially football, aka Texas).
Ask any student that goes to college what one of the biggest scams are..... you guessed it textbooks.... Something needs to change about this. Now that e readers are becoming more popular they should perhaps look to that option. No more going to the book store to sell back the books at the end and being told that edition is outdated and isn't worth crap.
There are plenty other areas to look at for waste. Feel free to add some of yours or elaborate on mine.
