Are American politicians good at dealing with long-term problems?

But the unfortunate reality is that American politicians have never been good at dealing with big, long-term problems. Lawmakers have tended to act only when they had no other choice. It took a brutal Civil War to end slavery. Bankers avoided regulation until the financial system totally collapsed in the early 1930s.

Why do we need new rules in politics?

We need new rules if we expect politicians to actually solve our national problems. Politics today thrives by focusing on ideology and wedge issues that drive people apart. Few citizens actually matter much to politicians.

Why does politics thrive in America today?

Politics today thrives by focusing on ideology and wedge issues that drive people apart. Few citizens actually matter much to politicians. Non-voters don’t matter. Voters in Gerrymandered districts don’t matter. In one-third of the country, Independents don’t matter in the primary elections.

Are we individually responsible for our politicians’ decisions?

But it is neither cheap nor convenient. Each one of us remains individually responsible: to stay informed, to demand something different, and to keep politicians and institutions in check. We don’t expect individuals to take the lead when it comes to other social and economic challenges, such as unemployment.

Can technology solve the world’s biggest problems?

Blithe optimism about technology’s powers has evaporated, too, as big problems that people had imagined technology would solve, such as hunger, poverty, malaria, climate change, cancer, and the diseases of old age, have come to seem intractably hard.

Who should solve the problems of the developing world?

Re-skilling the workforce. A lack of quality education and safe water for the poor in the developing world. Whose job is it to solve these problems? For decades, the answer to that question has been simple: government.

Can markets solve society’s problems?

We assert that yes, you can create markets — or at least market mechanisms — around problems like environmental cleanup, transitioning from welfare to work, and even human trafficking. In fact, markets and economic ecosystems are developing around all manner of societal problems.