What are the 5 worst problems the world faces today?

[Let's Get Free]

Choose the 5 worst problems the world faces today from the list below (or add your own ideas to the list) and say why you put them in that order
- Abortion
- Aging (senescence)
- Animal testing
- Bad or inadequate parenting
- Cancer
- Capitalism
- Corruption
- Crime
- Destruction of biodiversity
- Dirty water and poor sanitation
- Domestic violence
- Drug abuse
- Economic problems
- Environmental pollution
- Factory farming
- Hedonic treadmill
- Inequality
- Infectious diseases
- Involuntary death
- Isolation or alienation via technology
- Genocide
- Global warming
- Globalization
- Human rights violations
- Hunger and malnutrition
- Killing animals for food
- Lack of critical thinking
- Lack of democracy
- Lack of education
- Lack of empathic concern
- Lack of freedom of press
- Mental disorders
- Natural disasters
- Nuclear weapons
- Overfishing
- Overpopulation
- Pandemics (flu and others)
- Peak oil
- Political oppression
- Predation (in the wild)
- Protectionism (economics)
- Poverty
- Racism
- Religion (in general, or specific religions)
- Scarce resources
- Slavery
- Stress
- Terrorism
- Unhealthy lifestyles
- War
- Water shortage

[ÑóẊîöʼn]

Out of the list provided, I choose:

1. Capitalism

The fundamental socioeconomic structure of global civilisation, and it is entirely inadequate in almost every way. Where capitalism does not serve as the root cause of problems such as mismanagement of global resources, distortion of technological development or the other problems on the list, it more often than not exacerbates them because of the class structures and perverse incentives that form an intrinsic part of it.

2. Destruction of biodiversity

Erosion of the very ecologies which support us strikes me as a very big problem. Destruction of biodiversity has potentially civilisation-threatening implications, as more and more of humanity become dependent on a shrinking handful of organisms which become harder to replace and/or maintain as biodiversity diminishes. It's especially scary/rage-inducing to read about the shit that's being done to the oceans.

3. Lack of critical thinking

Like capitalism, this is a really big problem that has a tendency to pup a whole slew of big, bouncing baby problems. Also like capitalism, those with an interest in perpetuating a lack of critical thinking are many and powerful.

4. Anthropogenic climate change

"Warming" is a misnomer as some parts of the world will actually get colder. In any case, anthropogenic climate change has the potential to seriously fuck with global agricultural output. People are already going hungry in spite of more than enough food being produced, I'd hate to think what it would be like if there was a genuine shortage.

5. Involuntary death

This is humanity being cut short, closing off entire universes of possiblity. Imagine what we could achieve if everyone born had all the time in the world they could ever want. It is a truly universal obstacle to human self-realisation and is most likely the one problem out of this selection that would still remain after the demise of capitalism.

[Tenka]

Ageing.
Involuntary Death.
Cancer.

The human capacity for self-awareness leads most of us to hate the biological chains of senescence and mortality. The solution for many is belief in an afterlife, a soul, or whatever magickal ways in which death could not be the end of the individual; others choose a crude romanticisation of death (i.e., Dawkins is pleased to feed the worms, so to speak). Some people recognise the problem of bodily and mental deterioration towards death for the problem it is, and want to leave no taboo unbroken in the effort to solve it. Cancer is included in this description because it is a symptom, like senescence, of the body turning traitor.

Pandemics.
Infectious Diseases.

Those godawful microbes have been waging constant, invisible war against humanity since before we were humanity. They'll win one of these days, with medicine and everything in the interests of Capital.

Poor sanitation, pollution, global warming, catastrophic impact events, national borders, racism, sexism, etc. etc. etc.

Seriously I just blame Capitalism for standing in the way of resolving most of it in the interests of humanity.

[smellincoffee]

Overpopulation is far and away the greatest threat, because it creates many of the other problems. Resource management would be far simpler if there weren't so many people demanding them and producing waste. Our attempts to feed more people create complex institutions which inevitably break down, and the concentration of people into cities creates a fertile environment for disease. The breakdown of the system leads to social problems like crime.

So for me, overpopulation accounts for peak oil, scarce resources, etc. I would put it at the top of the list and add items which are completely different, like the lack of critical thinking (which for me also encompasses religion, unhealthy lifestyles, and the hedonic treadmill), systems that attempt to prolong the unsustainable like capitalism, and note also the decline in biodiversity, which is leaves us wide open to pestilence and famine. To this I would add the homogenization of human society caused by industrialism, which is more a quality-of-life issue.

[Ostrinski]

Leninists! The bastards.

[ed miliband]

- capital
- capital
- capital
- capital
- capital

[Os Cangaceiros]

Huh, never knew what a "hedonic treadmill" was before.

[Anarchocommunaltoad]

1. Growing inequality

2. The end of world's surplus of essentials

3. Mayan apocalypse

[Jesus Saves Gretzky Scores]

1. Capitalism

Most of these stem from capitalism.

2. Corruption

Making what we have even worse.

3. War

Pretty obvious.

4. Poverty

Pretty obvious as well.

5. Human Rights Violations

Keeping everyone down.


While there were a lot of other terrible ones on there, I feel like the elimination of these main ones would lead to the elimination of more specific issues.

[Workers-Control-Over-Prod]

1. HUNGER
2. Mass death by Starvation
3. Low Profitability
4. High debts
5. Climate change/resource depletion.

[Robespierres Neck]

This is pretty hard. I'd have to go with Capitalism, Lack of critical thinking, Lack of empathic concern, War, and Poverty as the top 5 biggest problems today. Fatal/infectious diseases (Cancer included) also deserves to be on the list. I wanted to choose others on the list, but it ultimately boils down to these.

[Sperm-Doll Setsuna]

Overpopulation is far and away the greatest threat, because it creates many of the other problems. Resource management would be far simpler if there weren't so many people demanding them and producing waste. Our attempts to feed more people create complex institutions which inevitably break down, and the concentration of people into cities creates a fertile environment for disease. The breakdown of the system leads to social problems like crime.

So for me, overpopulation accounts for peak oil, scarce resources, etc. I would put it at the top of the list and add items which are completely different, like the lack of critical thinking (which for me also encompasses religion, unhealthy lifestyles, and the hedonic treadmill), systems that attempt to prolong the unsustainable like capitalism, and note also the decline in biodiversity, which is leaves us wide open to pestilence and famine. To this I would add the homogenization of human society caused by industrialism, which is more a quality-of-life issue.

4. People like the quoted poster.

[Avanti]

boredom
adults
snitches
squares
boxes

[Anarchocommunaltoad]

boredom
adults
snitches
squares
boxes

Reevaluates PMing Avanti:laugh: (seriously no)

The lying damnation that befalls all who surf the internet

[GoddessCleoLover]

Adults, for sure. Don't trust anyone over eighteen.;)

Seriously; 1) Capitalism, 2) Climate change change/resource depletion, 3) mass starvation, 4) overpopulation and 5) potential disease pandemic.

[Pretty Flaco]

-you
-you entering the gene pool

[smellincoffee]

4. People like the quoted poster.

I'm flattered.

[Sperm-Doll Setsuna]

I'm flattered.

You shouldn't be, Mr. Malthus. It was not a compliment.

[Brosa Luxemburg]

Okay, why is abortion a "problem"?

[smellincoffee]

You shouldn't be, Mr. Malthus. It was not a compliment.

Call me what you like, but the human race cannot escape from the reality that resources are finite, no matter how many shiny gadgets we distract ourselves with.

[Yuppie Grinder]

Okay, why is abortion a "problem"?

I'm assuming he meant abortion prohibition or limited access to abortion. I don't think he actually thinks abortion is a problem. Maybe this thread should have been titled "5 most important issues".