Issue 1: Education

This may not be the most important today, but it is an important one regardless.

It's falling apart around here, and as far as I can tell from talking to teachers and friends, it is pretty much falling apart across the country. We still produce the occasional genius or bottom to top underdog story, but they are fewer than they used to be. As a whole we are developing poor work habits, study habits and eating habits from an early age.

This is not the fault of the educator, they are a product of a society that doesn't want to pay them, ties them down with restrictions and bureaucracy and does not have the resources to allow the children to compete in a global market. And increasingly seems to not want them to compete.

We still have school days that run on a farm calendar, despite the fact that we have passed through an agrarian society to a manufacturing one, and passed that into a service one. That isn't my biggest issue though. My largest concern is about subject matter.

There are two classes that need to be taught in schools; basic personal finance and basic nutrition. If your response is that these things are the responsibility of the parents, then look around you. We are all scrambling around because most adults do not understand these two very basic ideas. How many times did you have to talk to someone about what APR is? What is a 401k and how does it work? What is an HSA? How do you sign up for unemployment benefits if you need them? How do you get a car loan and whats a good rate? We have no idea until after the fact, or we have a parent who did their homework.

Nutrition is absolutely lacking, and it is having an effect on us and our image. We are suffering from obesity on an epic scale, heart disease and diabetes are rampant, basic body functions are failing, all because we want that laaaaaast slice of cake. For the arguement that there are people who suffer from thyroid or genetic issues that prevent them from being thin: yes there are, but because they feel they can never be thin they give up. I live in the midwest, where "husky" and "bigboned" or "big appetite" have been excuses for years.

Whole business empires have been created to cater to our failing to understand what is good for us, finacially or nutritionally. If nothng else, we need to learn to teach these things before we go through another credit crunch by a country unwilling to do an abdominal one.