What do you consider to be todays biggest evils?

[Manlinose]

greed, arrogance and selfishness

 

and aggression

 

and Simon Cowell

[mikebatty]

With Thatcher's passing I've been thinking quite a lot about legacies; and also about how under rated the Attlee government of 1945 - 1951 was.

 

In a nutshell Attlee's Government (with the liberal Beveridge, and some prep work by the wartime coalition) sought to tackle the great economic and social evils or 'giants' that that had plagued Britain especially after the depression.

 

Disease was to be slain by the creation of a NHS

Want was to be slain by the creation of the Welfare State

Squalor was to be slain by the creation of millions of homes

Ignorance was to be slain by the implemntation of the 1944 wartime coalition Education Act

Idleness was to be slain by the implementation of full employment policies based on principles set out by Keynes.

 

Anyway....What do you consider to be today's great gients to be slain?

 

I think mine would be

Inequality. There is a great divide between rich and poor, and a lot of research points how this can be counterproductive for society. Both inequality of opportunity and to a large extent equality of outcome, as well as access to the law. Some people think social mobility is more of a problem than inequality but I disagree. And no I'm not talking about absolute equality.

 

Crime. Although crime has been falling in recent years, it doubled under the Thatcher regime and I think a high crime society fosters a sense of mistrust and alienation in it's citizens.

 

Divide between families who have work and families that don't. I think that some families really struggle when both parents are at work, struggle to maintain a relationship, see their kids, and have quality time together as a family. Some families are time rich, but work poor so neither parent works, they are poor and cut off from the rest of the community. Perhaps if things were equalled out....society would be more at ease, perhaps some kind of rebalancing the economy between North and South.

 

Underclass This really has grown in the last 30 years. Yes ther have always been people who aren't interested in participating....But so many people seem so alienated, cut off and despairing. Yes there is a class of people that don't pay their fair share, are not loyal to this country and a fish rots from the head downwards.

 

Consumerism Not sure if this is more about globalisation, but it seems that we are a throw away society, and so much of our leisure time seems to be steered towards shopping, buying, etc. This has definitely increased over the last 30 years. Also I think its much more intrusive as well.

 

Anyway feel free to discuss, mull over solutions or think of 5 of your own giants that you think are plaguing our society.

 

Intolerance , Inconsiderateness, selfishness , impatience . All the destructive aspects of the human traits which come to the fore in a greedy and materialistic society , when there are so many good points which a human being has to offer .