(7) Focus on quality of life issues here in America (youth centers, green belts, local sports/arts, volunteer opportunities, urban beautification etc etc).
No. Our problem is not softy-pillow quality of life issues - our problem is hard budget issues. U.S. is far ahead of almost every other nation on earth in this already. We just need to keep our position on big financial issues - not silly little social feel-good programs.
Sorry, but you are short sighted. The more of the populace that is producing rather than sucking up resources via prisons, crime prevention, public assistance...............the better we all are as a society. I sat next to a Swiss man on the way home from Zurich, he had a paper and I was hungry for news. Anyway, we got to talking and got on to the subject of the Government helping people with housing etc there. He said "We know that if you don't take care of people they will become sick, emotionally. Causing more expense and burden. We gladly pay more to take care of them". I agree, America has the largest prison population in the world. Why not put that money at the front of lives instead of at the back??? These aren't silly feel good programs, they are forward thinking productive populace programs. You can tax workers, you can't tax prisoners.
I heard a comment on BBC today about the underlying problems that have added fuel to the London riots. There is a generation of young men who have never had any responsibility - no jobs. That youthful energy is like a powder keg waiting to be ignited. If we don't deal with those issues in some constructive way, we're going to have more of the same destructive unrest - globally. We'd better invest in some
silly little social feel-good programs
because the consequences can be danged expensive.