Special interests lobby for their interests. Sometimes our side wins. Sometimes our side loses. Somehow, year-by-year the rich get richer. Major issues get deal with or postponed. National interest loses focus. Society gets segmented. We need effective and cohesive policy.
Integrated policy requires planning. Plans require goals and vision. The country is diverse. Many people have different ideas. There are ways of accounting for this. We can look at savings, and some goals are truly worth it. We should think strategically. What do we want for our country?
Start with the environment. How do we get off fossil fuels? We shouldn't just have this subsidy or that. We need an comprehensive, official plan with goals, financial estimates, and milestones. If we need to put solar cells or windmills up all over the place, lets do it. Furthermore, the plan should be subject to full public accountability. We should know where we are on the plan.
Fixing the transportation can also help. A lot of gas is being used by inefficient planning. We need to develop a policy for finding the most efficient way to connect together the country.
This shouldn't just be a few high-speed trains here or there. We need to ask what is the most efficient method of connecting together every citizen in the country. There should be goals such as being able to get from any point in the country to any other point in 12 hours. 90% of the country should be able to make their daily commute using less than a certain of fuel. We need good bridges, roads, and highways too. We should set our goals for first-class infrastructure.
This will probably involve high-speed rail, improved buses and mass-transit, and more efficiently planned cities. Maximum congestion should be limited. Studies should be done to meet these goals, and leaders held accountable.
Communications plans have been put in place to an extent. However, they don't go far enough. We need to plan for a future where gigabit, net-neutral Internet is delivered to every home and business. Furthermore, every American should have access to a computer. We need strong vision and goals to drive us forward. When such national goals are in place, industry can make long-term plans to work with an infrastructure.
Our military policy needs long-term strategic vision. Soldiers need to know what our goals are in Iraq and Afghanistan. However, the issues are broader then that. We need a global strategy for managing a world-system. Such a system, should provide global stability on a small military budget. Ideally, it should provide a happy life for people in all countries.
Healthcare should not be about conflict between patients, insurance companies, hospitals, etc. It should be about keeping people healthy. We need to take a look at other policies, and see what is making people unhealthy. If people are working too much, labor policies need to be adjusted. If they are being poisoned by food, new regulations need to be undertaken for food safety. Mental health can be addressed by strengthening communities, and making them more livable. Doctors are not only ones responsible for health, and a strong policy with goals needs to reflect this.
Space provides a sense of adventure. Kennedy set the goal of putting a man on the moon. We should go to mars, and set other broad goals. NASA has been left without strong missions.
Education policy can seem complicated. We have gotten a whole policy rooted around test scores. Students are being told they need to go to school and study to do well on some tests. Is that a purpose anyone can aspire to? Education is about preparing children for the future. Educational goals should be driven by other objectives. If we are going to have a strong space program, people need to study for everything that requires. If we are going to build quality bridges, we need good engineers. When a society has goals, it gives children something to aspire to. Education policy should reflect this.
It is time for us to again become a nation with goals. We should be a country that aspires to great things. This includes physical infrastructure, and lofty space ambitions. When the nation has purpose, we can create good jobs to fulfill that purpose. Instead, we have fallen victim to endless frauds and bubbles. True purpose can guide us toward vision. It is time to dream again.