Mum's the Word
America is not talking, or even thinking. At least not about the things that matter most. Too many distractions, so many conversation stoppers. Leaving us with a future being made for us, done to us, not one we are actively seeking to shape.
I’ve written before about how we’re living in a state of emergency, starting with the very first entry in this journal of mine nearly four years ago, then half a dozen more times since. In that first article, I wrote that it was not one single emergency but six all at once. A little over two years later, I upped it to seven. Now I’d say it’s at least eight, and we’re not having anything remotely resembling a national conversation about any of them.
We’ve got unaddressed national emergencies coming out of our ears and we’re not meaningfully discussing them much less taking corrective action. This is not only an indictment of elected representatives. The cowardly and politically paralyzed Congress we currently have is a reflection of an impoverished national conversation, not its cause.
Much is made of how divided and polarized our society has become, yet a strong case can be made that it’s something we largely agree on that’s most to blame for derailing national discourse and preventing problem solving. Yes, we have our differences, plenty of them. All generations of Americans have had differences, often very sharp ones, but previous generations managed to work through them. They didn’t get stuck, not the way we are today.
If there’s a national consensus on anything nowadays, it’s that America is in deep trouble, heading in the wrong direction, going downhill. One thing we all seem to agree on is that “the system is broken.” When we say that, we really mean to say systems, plural. The political system, economic system, health care system, all broken. And those are only the three brought up the most.
As for those eight largely ignored national emergencies, here goes:
1. There is grotesque economic inequality in America, and it worsens by the day, with the wealthiest 10% of Americans making half of all consumer purchases. Our society seems resigned to this arrangement. The federal tax rate on the highest income bracket is half what it was 50 years ago, the top rate the wealthiest paid at the end of World War II was nearly triple what it is now. There is not so much as a whisper—either in Congress, at the White House, in the media or much of anywhere else—about restoring such policies that even out the distribution of income and wealth.
2. Millions of Americans lack health insurance, millions more are a pink slip away from losing theirs, growing numbers who manage to stay covered have crappy insurance, nearly everyone who gets care has a horror story about how the medical industry did them wrong. Seven in 10 Americans believe the health care system has major problems or is in a state of crisis. No concentrated attention is being paid to overhauling it.
3. Fear of a technological takeover of our lives and livelihoods has 70% of us here in Wisconsin believing artificial intelligence is overall a bad thing for society and similar majorities opposing the energy- and water-devouring data centers needed to power AI. In what passes for a technology debate, it’s all or nothing. One side demands outright bans on AI and data centers. The other side insists on a cyber version of the Wild West, with no rules or regulation whatsoever. So far there’s been no attempt to find a middle ground that accepts there’s no shoving this genie back in the bottle but also sees the need for economic safeguards for workers along with protection of personal privacy and intellectual property.
4. Heavy reliance on fossil fuels to produce electricity and provide transportation has caused undeniable environmental harms that are showing themselves in the form of more volatile weather and violent storms as well as adverse health consequences. As demand for electricity surges globally, the rest of the world is racing to transition to alternative sources of energy. Meanwhile, the current regime in the U.S. is doubling down on fossil fuels while withdrawing support for the development of renewables. The climate crisis is getting scant attention these days, having been driven off the agenda here. Few are complaining.
5. Plainly visible and loudly vocal expressions of racism and other forms of bigotry have been made fashionable again. After decades of progress, backsliding on women’s rights and even open displays of misogyny are gaining alarming degrees of acceptance. Scapegoating of immigrants and other vulnerable populations has grown commonplace. Such social injustices are in the back of our minds for the time being.
6. America condones and even celebrates violence while talking little and doing less about glaring symptoms of what 90% of Americans consider a mental health crisis. The U.S. leads the world in gun deaths, has the highest suicide rate among wealthy countries, fueled by an epidemic of loneliness and depression. That sums up a nation with more than unattended public health and safety concerns, one with uncorrected moral failings that are swept under the rug. Out of sight, out of mind.
7. Our country passed a grim milestone just the other day when the national debt surpassed America’s total annual economic output. Government debt has mushroomed to $31.27 trillion, according to the U.S. Treasury, while the Department of Commerce estimated the nation’s gross domestic product (GDP) for the past 12 months at $31.22 trillion. How best to raise revenue and reduce spending is not exactly a hot topic. The line for volunteers willing to stave off the nation’s insolvency by paying more, getting less or some of each is not long.
8. Belief that corruption is killing democracy has the blood of most Americans boiling, but equally strong feelings of political impotence quickly turn that anger into despair, as far too many among us wrongly assume it’s always been this way and always will be. Those who lack confidence in the possibility of any reform are convinced there’s no use talking about things like ending the legal bribery of elected officials or banning congressional stock trading. Needed conversations about these kinds of cures for what ails us are stopped dead in their tracks.
Eight mammoth problems, one murky future. We let everything from bombs to seashells get in the way of us dealing with them.