Posts by Michal Miara
Revamping the Health Care System
The United States health care system is very inefficient at keeping the population healthy. It ranks 46th in a survey of 48 countries and it is currently the fattest country in the world, just ahead of Mexico. Health care isn’t making us healthy, it’s just keeping everyone on life support. Furthermore cigarette company Philip Morris International ranks at #2 in lobbying Congress at 9.83 million dollars in 2012. Likewise pharmaceutical entities Merck, Johnson & Johnson, and Proctor & Gamble saw large increases in lobbying where they combined for just under 20 million dollars in 2012. Simply put, the United States health care system is unwilling to change because multimillion dollar corporations are influencing the decisions of Congress. We are unable to have a successful health care system like the one in Canada (which is ranked #1 in the world based on Canadian citizen satisfaction with the system) because the true motive is money, not health.
In terms of developed countries, the United States ranks at the bottom of every measurable statistic found in a Business Insider report. These include highest mortality rate, second worst rate of respiratory disease, and highest health care cost per capita. These high health care costs come from the fact that health care is a largely private owned industry in the United States. Insurance companies average about 25% overhead which is a major contributor to high healthcare costs in the United States. On the other hand, the state sponsored Medicare has an overhead of just 1%. When comparing these percentages in the sense of millions of dollars, the disparity is visible and the savings are huge for the consumer.
In order to create a better health care system, I propose that insurance become a fully state sponsored industry. Instead of having hundreds of health providers to choose from there will just be one provider that is paid for with taxpayer money and everyone will be able to benefit. This solves the issue of hospitals having to overcharge for certain procedures and doing unnecessary procedures just to milk insurance companies for compensation. People will no longer be faced with huge debts to hospitals for that one in a million injury/disease they get when they would otherwise be healthy. It solves the problem of millions of healthy people paying large amounts of money per month to go towards health insurance coverage when they don’t get any expensive procedures done.
The only way to solve the issue of expensive and ineffective health care coverage is to attack it at its source; private health insurance companies. They don’t provide benefits to the consumer and they lobby Congress to go against the health issues in our country. A fully state sponsored health insurance plan as seen effective in other countries is the only tried and tested system that we should move to in order to provide useful health care coverage to the people of the United States.
Source:
- http://www.healthline.com/health-news/policy-eight-healthcare-statistics-that-may-surprise-you-090113#2
- http://www.bloomberg.com/visual-data/best-and-worst/biggest-increases-in-lobbying-in-u-dot-s-companies
- http://www.businessinsider.com/us-health-lags-the-developed-world-2013-1
Inspiring Women from an Early Age
A common problem found is that women aren’t expected or encouraged to join the ranks of high-level positions in companies. From a very young age, children are taught their traditional gender roles in elementary school and kindergarten that influence them for the rest of their lives. This is the source of the problem that creates the glass ceiling; women from a young age are pushed into believing that they are unable to achieve the same level of success in their careers as men.
My solution isn’t an instant fix to the whole problem but will work over time to equalize the wage gap and create a more balanced economy. Simply put, it would involve changing all the philosophies in the public schools to make a more gender-neutral environment. Tasks such as cleaning wouldn’t be given out only to girls and tasks such as carrying things wouldn’t be given out only to boys. This is the root of the issue because from a young age, people unknowingly discriminate based on gender, which is no fault of their own. They are simply following the same principles that they were taught as children.
To further tackle this problem, teachers would equally engage students of both genders to become indulged in what they want to do rather than what society wants them to do. This wouldn’t mean forcing girls to learn more STEM and boys to go into caregiving professions but instead letting them choose what they want to focus on in their studies. By broadening what children learn at a young age, the process in turn broadens their horizons in the future when the children grow up and are on their own.
Gender-neutral language is also an important component of eliminating patriarchal dominance in society. Our society is very saturated with words such as fireman, policeman, businessman which establish patriarchal dominance. It was in high school in a writing class where I learned that the use of these words is sexist and should overall be avoided if possible. At that point the words were fully ingrained into my mind so it was difficult to just suddenly change my way of thinking.
Ultimately the best way to solve the wage gap and the gender ceiling involves penetration at a young level. Children absorb the most information at a young age so it is the best time to ingrain gender-neutral language and ideas so that everyone has an equal chance at being successful. It would solve the idea of picking and choosing male candidates for jobs for which some women may be more qualified to do.
Sources:
Questions for Kim Wales
- How has the emergence of crowd funding changed the way start ups are evaluated and run for maximum marketing potential?
- What are some of the top problems you see when advising businesses?
Questions for Arielle Kandel
- How did you go about founding New Women New Yorkers and creating a team to advance its mission?
- How successful has the program been in achieving its goal of empowering young women? Can you give me some examples?
Problems with Gender and Economic Growth
The current workplace sees a wide disparity between genders. Women choose to take jobs that are safer and closer to home thus allowing them to spend more time with family. The real underlying problem is that women are just following traditional gender roles, which cause them to make less money. Data shows that unmarried women who have never had a child actually make more money than unmarried men.
There are large disparities in jobs that are more dangerous and thus pay more. These jobs include “Fishers, loggers, aircraft pilots, farmers and ranchers, roofers, iron and steel workers, refuse and recyclable material collectors, industrial machinery installation and repair, truck drivers, construction laborers” as mentioned by Steve Tobak. This leads to the fact that women don’t choose jobs in STEM fields. A 2009 White House report shows that only 9% of women professionals are employed in jobs in high paying computer and engineering fields compared to 38% for male professionals. Women simply tend to gravitate towards low paying education and health care professions according to the report due to the traditional gender role of being a nurturing person.
Another issue we see in society is what is often referred to as the glass ceiling. This imaginary barrier is what women attribute to their inability to advance in the workplace due to prejudices. The idea stems from many decades ago when men dominated every aspect of business and people lived in an extremely patriarchal society. With more women attending college than men nowadays, we must assume that these high profile positions are being filled by under qualified people because they are male dominated. Times have changed since but women still feel there is this blockade stopping them from having a successful career.
A final gender issue is the responsibility of taking care of children. Traditionally men are the breadwinners while women have the ability of taking maternity leave to take care of their children and then continue on with their careers after a period of a few months. Men’s jobs simply don’t give them the ability to take a maternity leave to take care of their children, which is a problem that should be addressed. This further stems to the idea that stay at home dads are seen as a low and weak person for letting the mother take care of providing for the family. These gender prejudices are what stop our society from advancing to the idealistic equal wage for genders.
Ultimately the female workforce is not diversified enough to close the wage gap. Simply forcing women into top-level positions won’t fix anything just as the same analogy can be made for diversifying specialized high schools won’t solve the problem of undereducated minorities. Ultimately neither men or women shouldn’t be forced into certain professions for the sake of having gender equality, people should follow their dreams in life that stem from their natural interests.
Sources:
Solution to the Modernization of the Economy
The office as a workplace is declining in this world. It is not an efficient use of space and workers spend a large portion of time commuting to and from offices that could be better spent working. Technology has already created millions of jobs but it will also be the reason why many others adapt to take full advantage of it. The internet is becoming the new marketplace for startups due to worldwide exposure. Companies are moving away from the traditional workplace and moving towards telecommuting and contract labor.
The future of jobs relies on the worldwide connections accessible through the internet yet the United States is lacking in infrastructure to handle such a huge load of people accessing the internet at the same time. High speed broadband internet is a major obstacle in place for the transformation of work. The United States leads the world in broadband profits but ranks 35th out of 148 countries in internet bandwidth based on the World Economic Forum. The obstacles preventing faster broadband in the United States are the telecommunication companies despite the fact that studies show that it stimulates economic growth. Recent strides have been made by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) by reclassifying broadband as a utility. This ruling is being challenged by the telecommunications companies because it goes against their interest.
A prime example of how government regulation of broadband can be extremely beneficial can be seen in South Korea. With the introduction of the internet in the 1990s, South Korea focused their economy on the future by developing high tech industries.This embrace of technology has allowed Hyundai Motor Group and Samsung to become recognized brands that are envied throughout the world. Samsung displaced Apple as the world’s largest mobile phone manufacturer in 2011, became the world’s largest producer of LCD panels in 2002, and the world’s largest television manufacturer in 2006. Hyundai Motor Group also became the fifth largest auto manufacturer in 2007. These advancements in the technological world coincide with the fact that South Korea has the fastest internet speeds in the world due to the fact that the government subsidizes internet so that people with lower incomes can have access to the plethora of information available online. Internet exposure for the Korean companies is what made them into the leaders of innovation in their respective sectors.
For the transition of the economy to be based on the internet, the United States needs to upgrade its infrastructure and subsidize internet costs so everyone can have access. Strides have been made with net neutrality declarations and reclassifying broadband as a utility. Yet there is still the issue of the telecommunication companies challenging these rulings and halting innovation for the sake of their own profits. For the United States economy to grow and create jobs for our sprawling population, the industries will have to modernize with fast internet capable of handling everyone will little to no downtime.
Sources:
- http://www.nytimes.com/2013/12/30/technology/us-struggling-to-keep-pace-in-broadband-service.html?nl=todaysheadlines&_r=1
- http://mic.com/articles/95778/one-statistic-shows-just-how-terrible-america-s-internet-access-is
- http://www.cnn.com/2010/TECH/03/31/broadband.south.korea/
- http://www.nytimes.com/2015/02/27/technology/net-neutrality-fcc-vote-internet-utility.html?_r=0
- http://www.foreignaffairs.com/articles/140335/marcus-noland/six-markets-to-watch-south-korea
- http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2399445,00.asp
- http://www.statista.com/statistics/267095/global-market-share-of-lcd-tv-manufacturers/
- http://www.hmmausa.com/our-company/about-hmma/hmc-fact-sheet/
BF+DA Questions
- How does BF+DA go about selecting ventures to become fellows of the program?
- How does the BF+DA involve people that are not in fashion design to be part of its ventures?
Problems with Work
Work as of recent has been undergoing the largest change to its basis since industrialization. Rising costs have forced people to innovate in different ways; office space is no longer a primary concern for large firms as the industry as a whole is moving to accommodate contract labor. With the rise of machinery, many people will also be displaced of jobs. Furthermore, as more people go to college, the bachelor’s degree is being devalued and thus not being the worthwhile investment it used to be.
Office space is an expensive luxury for large companies and the current trend shows an increase in office building vacancies. Instead of committing to workers for a long time, firms would rather contract them for a short project and then let them go after. In a short-minded aspect, this would allow the individual to make more money in a short amount of time. Long-term wise, the individual has no job security with contract jobs and there are no worker benefits available. Luxuries such as employer sponsored healthcare and retirement plans would fade away as all of the responsibilities would fall on the individual to handle them and prepare for the future.
With the rise of computer technology came the rise of many new jobs. Now technology threatens to replace many jobs that perform very repetitive tasks. Assembly lines of people are becoming a thing of the past as machines take over because they are more efficient and don’t have to be paid for other than initial cost and the occasional maintenance. The lower classes are the ones that are the most threatened by machinery and will displace a large amount of the work force that will need to be reassigned to new jobs to keep the economy in check.
In today’s world, every person coming out of high school is expected to go to college to complete their bachelor’s degree at a minimum. Societal pressures encourage this expectation. This has led to the loss of value of college degrees and people are no longer guaranteed a job after college. The issue here is that many people waste money on college on getting meaningless degrees that won’t help them at all in the job market because they are plentiful. This can be rooted at the fact that people don’t know what they want to do for the rest of their lives yet at the end of high school. In the modern era people can have multiple career changes because we live longer due to medicine and a general improvement in health.
We are currently in a period of uncertainty in the job market. The expectations that were put into the current generation’s minds of how they would carry out their working lives have been shattered but have been filled with hope for a better life and a more meaningful job. The rise of machinery will displace a large percentage of the workforce performing menial jobs and they will need to be accommodated.
Sources:
http://www.nationalreview.com/phi-beta-cons/340886/how-universities-devalued-higher-education-thomas-k-lindsay
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2014-03-12/your-job-taught-to-machines-puts-half-u-s-work-at-risk
http://www.technologyreview.com/featuredstory/515926/how-technology-is-destroying-jobs/
Questions for Centre of Social Innovation
- Does the Centre identify and facilitate collaboration opportunities between social ventures?
- With the changing structure of the workplace in the world, do you think that social incubators such as the Center become more widely exposed to help people start social ventures?
Policing Solutions
The United States has a major problem of incarcerating too many people. The United States is waging a war on drugs (many of which are smuggled across the Mexican border) and is punishing the users of the drugs rather than attacking the problem at its source. Many prisoners we currently have are being sent there for minor drug related offenses. People are being sent to prison only for carrying around drugs with no intention to sell and this is where the problem lies. The government has to realize that it can’t win this war on drugs and follow the examples set by other countries that have already accepted that fact.
One such country that has chosen to decriminalize drugs is Portugal. In 2001, Portugal became the first European country to abolish all criminal penalties for drug possession. Being a historically Catholic conservative nation, there were many skeptics who believed that Portugal would become a drug tourist haven. Eight years later in 2009 a study done showed the exact opposite occurred. HIV infection rates declined as people were no longer sharing needles for heroin use, illegal drug use among teens dropped, and the amount of people checking in for drug use rehabilitation doubled. The money saved in enforcing these drugs laws was put towards drug rehabilitation and overall the nation went from having one of the highest drug use rates in Europe to one of the lowest.
The United States should follow Portugal’s lead as I believe we could find similar success as Portugal. It is human nature to go after that which is not allowed, once the risk disappears, people are less likely to do it. Some states have already taken steps with the recent cannabis legalization movement. As of now Washington, Oregon, Alaska, Colorado, and Washington D.C. have legalized cannabis sales. This solves two problems we are facing. It cuts into the profits of the cartel and statistics show decreasing crime rates. In addition to both of those benefits, there has also been a massive influx of tax money gained from marijuana sales which is spent on education and drug rehabilitation.
My proposed solution is for the United States to drop its hard line stance on drugs and follow in the footsteps of Portugal which decriminalized drugs. The statistics show a decline in crime and drug use while having an increase in tax money and people checking in to drug rehabilitation. For many years we have waged a costly war on drugs that has in no ways been effective and caused the deaths of many of our citizens. By changing our stance and attacking the problem at its source, we can create a safer environment for future generations where drug use will no longer be a problem they will have to deal with.
Sources:
- http://www.sentencingproject.org/template/page.cfm?id=107
- http://infocusrevue.com/2014/12/10/monthly-focus-the-war-on-drugs-mass-incarceration-in-the-united-states/
- http://www.spiegel.de/international/europe/evaluating-drug-decriminalization-in-portugal-12-years-later-a-891060.html
- http://content.time.com/time/health/article/0,8599,1893946,00.html
- http://www.drugpolicy.org/sites/default/files/DPA_Status_Report_Colorado_Marijuana_Regulation.pdf
Comments by Michal Miara
"I believe everyone should have the right to get an equal wage based on similar wages in their position in the industry. I agree with your point that people should be educated and have a clear idea of what people at their current job are paid. It is a widely known fact that women simply do not negotiate wages compared to their male counterparts. Likewise is the maternity leave for which many women (especially in the private sector) are not paid for. Like you said, they shouldn’t be punished for being biologically selected to be able to give birth. In the progressive society we live in in New York City, every woman should be able to have paid maternity leave to be able to care for her child and still be able to pay for rent, food, and utilities. Likewise men should also be allowed a paid paternity leave so they too can spend time with their children instead of slaving away at a job due to the mother having unpaid maternity leave. Its a win win situation for both genders and it makes sense."
--( posted on May 7, 2015, commenting on the post
Gender and Economic Growth Solutions )
"Your idea is very similar to mine of empowering women at a young age. It is in elementary school where children absorb a huge amount of information that stays with them for the rest of their lives. Treating men and women as equals is the way to go to eliminate gender prejudices and create and equal gender atmosphere for the future. I agree with your idea of having parents come in and talk about their jobs. At such a young age, every child wants to join the police, be a firefighter, become President, become a doctor, or an astronaut. In order for them to be able to reach these goals and beyond, they need to be empowered for a change at a young age when their minds are most accepting of change. This is the best way to approach the problem because like you said, in order to change the future, we have to change the minds of the present."
--( posted on May 7, 2015, commenting on the post
Gender and Economic Growth Solution )
"The statistics that you show about the pay gap are very evident that there is a visible issue. It came as a surprise to me that it is such a severe problem of women being paid 22% less than what men are paid for the same full time positions. Likewise discrimination and abuse are also huge problems in the workforce and in the 21st century, they really shouldn’t be. As a city that is so successful in the business world and still hanging on to archaic ideals is the problem we are facing. I agree that maternity leave may cause this glass ceiling that women face. On the other hand, men don’t want to be faced with a glass ceiling so they rarely if at all take a paternity leave from their job. This is due to traditional gender roles of the male being seen as the provider and the woman being seen as a caretaker. In general these gender roles are impractical in our society and should be changed to be more accepting of everyone."
--( posted on May 7, 2015, commenting on the post
Gender Lens and Economic Growth Problem Set )
"I agree with your point that more women should be encouraged to join science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) programs. The gender gap in STEM fields is in huge disproportion largely due to the fact that women don’t believe they can gain success from these fields and instead just conform to societal expectations. It would be a huge boost of competition in the economy if more women took the initiative to major and later on work in a STEM field. While on a whole the disparity is about 3:1 in favor of men generally in STEM, it is much worse in only engineering. Being an electrical engineering major myself, I can see that there are little if any women students in my major classes. I believe that this is due to the stigma that it is a man’s profession which once again brings us to the point of gender conformity. Thus I think that women in STEM acting as role models would be a good way to diversify the classes and workplace."
--( posted on May 7, 2015, commenting on the post
Gender and Economic Problems )
"I agree with your point that school lunches need to be completely revamped. Like you I was fortunate to bring lunch from home but I saw that all the other kids ate was pizza, fries, sloppy joes, and mozzarella sticks; not exactly a healthy balance of food. Furthermore it is these habits that kids develop at a young age of eating unhealthy that will carry on with them for the rest of their adult lives. I didn’t know that the food standards were developed in 1946 but it seems completely outdated because times have changed and like you said, so has our understanding of nutrition. With the obesity crisis looming in the next few decades, we simply cannot afford to allow so many youth to eat unhealthy and then suffer with all the diseases that stem from obesity. Congress needs to take the responsible stance and write new standards for school lunches because current lunches are pale in comparison to what other much poorer countries receive. Another problem is the high fructose corn syrup which you mention. Only recently have we started using it in our products so doctors don’t yet know the long term effects on our bodies but initial findings don’t look promising. High fructose corn syrup is linked to obesity and diabetes so it would be best to use a safer proven alternative like sugar to sweeten our foods instead of going for whats cheapest."
--( posted on May 7, 2015, commenting on the post
Public Health Problems and Solutions )
"I completely agree with your point that too many foods are blatantly wasted just because they don’t look as perfect as the ones we are marketed. Furthermore I also believe that the problem of low income neighborhoods not having access to fresh foods should also be addressed. While I believe that selling ugly fruits and vegetables is a step in the right direction, there is another part of the problem that you completely omitted. These low income people don’t have the time to devote to cooking these fresh foods which is why they use the convenience of fast food restaurants. With the marketing of these ugly foods, there should also be marketing of quick cooking methods as well as slow cookers which can be left at home while everyone is at work and then come home to a hot fresh meal. The selling of these ugly foods will in general revolutionize the food market driving costs down because people will be more likely to buy cheaper produce that tastes exactly the same as the perfect ones that are marketed and remove a lot of food waste."
--( posted on May 7, 2015, commenting on the post
Public Heath Problems and Solutions )
"I completely agree with your point that colleges focus too much on test grades. Students are too focused on improving their GPA to actually understand the material they are being tested on. The system favors people who are able to take tests well rather than those that can apply the knowledge in their field. This also leads to the rising problem of grade inflation where professors give out higher grades more easily to their students. Giving high grades doesn’t tackle the main problem that you also mention, lack of experience. Students are simply not prepared for the workplace because they didn’t have an internship or job throughout college relating to their field of study. Your idea of making people get an internship in order to graduate gives students that extra incentive to go above and beyond what they learn in the classroom and actually apply it in the real world. I feel like the ultimate solution would be to not force everyone to go to college when they are in high school. There are other options available such as trade school where people can hone their skills and still be successful in life."
--( posted on Mar 23, 2015, commenting on the post
Future of Work Solutions )
"I agree with your points that the expansion of jobs would require the government to get involved to create jobs across a wide range of industries. The fact that the government spends a large amount of money on the military is a widely known fact but reallocating funds from the military is not the solution that best protects our interests. The United States works as a global policing force and that it why it is so successful in terms of its economy. Simply put, money shouldn’t be diverted from one cause to another; it should be used more effectively so more of it can be made available.
I really like the prospect of the government incentivizing businesses to hire inexperienced workers. It gives them a cheap source of labor and it boosts the economy. The people who really benefit are the actual workers because they gain a valuable source of income and work experience to be able to apply to higher earning positions. The current problem in the economy is the lack of entry level positions making a large gap in the workforce where people settle for jobs unrelated to their degrees."
--( posted on Mar 23, 2015, commenting on the post
Work Solutions )
"Freelancing is slowly becoming the basis of the workforce in the world. I agree with your points of the ramifications of this change. People will have less job security but I believe it works out better for the individuals because of flexible working hours. A lot of time is saved when people don’t have to commute to an office space and generally they are more available to spend more time with families. The only issue with this would obviously be the working benefits. For the whole process to be successful as a whole, I believe the government would have to introduce a state sponsored healthcare and pension plan to provide a sense of security for the individual both for their health and their future. An issue I see with this is the vacancy of office buildings. It is interesting as to how they will be repurposed if everyone starts working from home especially in large cities like New York where billions are spent on building the largest skyscraper possible. Nonetheless the whole transition of jobs is a huge period of uncertainty for everyone else because nothing of similar scale and magnitude has ever occurred before."
--( posted on Mar 12, 2015, commenting on the post
Problems with the Future of Work )
"I never looked at the situation of moving away from offices as a problem involving the social lives of the workers. While I agree that the office space nurtures a social environment between coworkers; I believe there are other ways to promote a social life between coworkers. With all the extra free time that workers have from working at home, they can in turn spend more time with friends and family, generally living a happier and rewarding life. I believe the real root of the anti-social problem that you’re describing is technology and social media. Everyday situations on the subway where people used to start up conversations between each other are being replaced by cellphones and music. Generally as a trend society is moving towards being social through technology rather than socializing physically between each other. Like the transition from office work to freelance contract work and working from home, we are currently in a period of uncertainty. I see teleworking as an opportunity to spend more time with friends and family, setting your own work hours, and a more lax environment to work, things that can’t be found in an office cubicle."
--( posted on Mar 12, 2015, commenting on the post
Problem 2 – The Future of Work )
"While body cameras may seem like a great idea in theory, I believe they violate the rights of privacy and would lead to the United States turning into a police state. Having many cameras walking around the city, recording every action on the streets is a violation of privacy not only of the individuals but also of the police officer. Body cameras have the second problem of being very costly. There are so many shortfalls in the budget that it is simply not a viable option to allocate funds towards body cameras for police officers. It would be an irresponsible thing to do when there are so many other sectors in need of funds. A better approach to this would be officer-training sessions done multiple times per year so that they know how to approach dangerous situations. I completely disagree that body cameras are more honest because like with prison footage of guards beating prisoners, footage from police body cameras can be deleted and altered to give the police the upper hand if a matter escalates to the judicial system. Ultimately body cameras may seem like a great idea, but in practice they just create more problems than they solve."
--( posted on Mar 3, 2015, commenting on the post
Policing Solutions )
"Generally police officers do not use their handguns on a day-to-day basis and like you said, they are not experienced enough to be handling such a deadly instrument. I agree with the fact that we do need stricter testing to set a higher standard in the police force. Evidenced by many police shootings in the past, officers are simply not trained enough to be able to judge situations and handle pistols in an effective manner. Police shootings often cause widespread controversy in the media and turn the police into a villain rather than being seen as a friend to the populace. I also agree with your second point of the NYPD having too many officers for the declining crime rate. Only high quality officers with a proven track record should be kept on the job, however, the police union would obstruct this layoff of such a large amount of police officers but that is a whole different argument. Ultimately, police officers do need more training to be able to serve the public effectively and need to be well aware of protocol when handling dangerous situations that involve the use of weaponry."
--( posted on Mar 3, 2015, commenting on the post
Solutions 1: Police Firearm Training )
"Police brutality is a major problem being discussed in news sources in recent memory. I agree that overall police do discriminate in terms of race. They hand out harder punishments to African-Americans and generally accuse them more of crime. The stereotype can’t simply be removed from the current generation of police officers, the next generation must be educated to enforce fairly and justly. Police brutality on the other hand can be stopped. Police aren’t really punished for actions unless they are widely publicized in the media. This also leads to the fact that many police killings aren’t actually made public or aren’t recorded.
The best way to solve this would be body cameras on all police officers; this solves all the issues of accountability as everything is recorded on camera. It is the best solution for both parties as it addresses their concerns. Police have to work on not being seen as enemies, improving public image is crucial to the police force functioning effectively. All the recent news of Michael Brown and Eric Garner have only separated the divide that was already very large between the police and the people they are entrusted to protect. Ultimately the police force must reform itself to fix the many issues they are currently facing."
--( posted on Feb 19, 2015, commenting on the post
Policing Problems )
"I agree with you that our prison system is extremely flawed. Too many people are put into prison for minor offenses and then held there for long sentences. Simply put, too much taxpayer money is being wasted on sustaining people and ruining their lives in prison. I also agree that prisoners aren’t well prepared to function normally in the outside world. The rehabilitation programs aren’t effective in prisons and not much is being done to improve the prison system. I believe this is due to a lack of judgment because like the police force, the prison system is too much of a business.
I also agree with you on the case of the police not following the laws that they are entrusted to enforce. I see too many police on the road that blatantly disregard speed limits and red lights by turning on their sirens while also stopping people for doing the same thing. It seems hypocritical to me for the people that are supposed to be role models to be engaging in such behavior. For the police to be trusted by the people they serve, they need to work on being the role models that they are expected to be."
--( posted on Feb 19, 2015, commenting on the post
Policing Problems )
