Post 2: Bug List

Of all the things in the world that bug me, these are the first 20 that come to mind:

#1 - The inefficiency of traffic, in Florida especially
         - The requirements of getting a license are far too little. You don't even need to know how to drive to get a license, period. When I did my final "driver's test," I never even left the parking lot.. literally. The whole test happened within a 50 foot parking lot. How can someone be expected to go on a highway or drive in stop-and-go traffic just because they can go 10mph back and forth in a parking lot with nobody else around? It's ridiculous.

#2 - Lack of Recycling
         - Caused by the lack of legislature needed to make recycling mandatory. In many countries, people get fined if they do not recycle. That's how it should be.. it's not that difficult.

#3 - The minimal number of electric cars being driven
         - This is because electric cars are more expensive and also because the oil/gas corporations lobby to prevent the switch to electric cars, lessening the amount of legislature being passed to initiate the switch.

#4 - Healthy food is so much more expensive than unhealthy food.
          - This is caused by pricing differences due to supply and demand, or the fact that it might actually cost more to produce foods that are organic, not processed, etc., or maybe a combination of both.

#5 - The U.S. public education system is not suited to prepare modern students for the real world.
          - The education system is still based off the education system that was created during the Industrial Revolution, which molded students into individuals who were suited to fit like a cog into the well-oiled machine of the American economic system. However, nowadays companies and the economy as a whole are completely different. Things like pensions will be a thing of the past, technology is causing more and more jobs to become automated, and technology is also taking away the need for the typical office setting for many reasons, including the fact that, for many jobs, people can work from anywhere. The public education system in no way prepares students for these types of situations, not to mention financial planning, budgeting, taxes, etc. - all the many areas of necessary adult life that are never covered in school.

#6 - Peer pressure prevents most kids and even many adults from staying true to themselves.
          - Not sure exactly what causes this, but there may be some sociological explanation, or maybe it stems from the evolutionary need to fit in to the "pack."

#7 - Inconsideration, referring to people not being considerate of others or not thinking of how their actions will affect others
         - Due to the individualistic nature of American society

#8 - News/Media and Entertainment mostly focus on negative occurrences or current events that are superficial in nature.
          - Unfortunately, due to human psychology, these aspects of society happen to attract the largest audience, which leads to more profit for the organizations in these industries who care more about money than creating a positive influence on society.

#9 - There are far too many car accidents.
          - This is due to the same reasons listed in #1 above as well as the fact that the driving age of 16 is too young because the road has to be taken with the utmost seriousness, and there is no way that any more than 25% of 16 year old kids in America are mature or responsible enough to be driving a vehicle that can easily put other people's lives in danger.

#10 - The war between science and religion leads to a divide between large segments of our population and causes discrimination on both sides.
          - Once people make up their mind about something, they tend to pay more attention to the statements that support their beliefs while ignoring statements that oppose their beliefs, causing an endless debate. For some reason most people assume that it has to be science or religion; I don't see why they shouldn't be able to coexist.

#11 - The terrible treatment of animals in the food production process and how it then affects the people eating the food.
           - The companies producing the food create their processes only with the aim of maximum efficiency for profit. This causes the animals to be more unhealthy, which then causes the people eating the food to be more unhealthy.

#12 - A large percentage of food goes to waste, especially from restaurants, etc.
             - This may be caused by sanitation laws as well as the reluctance of restaurants to undertake any excess expenses that this may cause.

#13 - The 40 hour work week is not the most efficient work schedule, but it is still widely enforced.
             - Not only has it been shown that worker's efficiency decreases dramatically as the day goes on, but they will then be more tired the following days, causing an endless cycle of unproductive and unmotivated work.

#14 - Health care in the U.S. is too expensive, causing many people to go bankrupt due to unexpected accidents that end up costing tens of thousands of dollars
            - I believe this is due to some inefficiency in government budgeting because there are some countries that provide free health care as well as free education all the way through college, and it is not ruining their economy.

#15 - The corrupt political system does not accurately represent a democratic system.
            - Too many political decisions are affected by lobbyists who require favors for helping politicians get into office. Just watch House of Cards. It's obviously exaggerated sometimes, but a lot of it represents how politics really works.

#16 - The voting process is not efficient or a fair representation of what the people need or want.
            - One major issue is that not everybody votes. In addition, other areas such as polling, biased media, and the delegate system contribute to an inefficient voting system.

#17 - College tuition is too expensive and rising, which leads to many people graduating in debt, meanwhile the value of college degrees is decreasing.
            - This is caused by a combination of schools' trying to generate profits as well as inflation, which causes the prices to increase for seemingly no reason.

#18 - Personal information is too easily accessible. From a simple Google search you can find out some one's address, phone number, and many other personal details.
            - I am honestly not sure why this is allowed. One's address and phone number shouldn't be considered as public information.

#19 - If you do research on many topics, for example "Should I keep my body warm or cool when I have a fever," you will find so many answers agreeing with both sides. This is the case with so many different topics including weight loss, nutrition, exercise, etc.
            - This is caused by the ease with which people can post information on the Internet combined with the fact that there is no one-size-fits-all solution for these issues. Each person's body is different and each scenario is different, so each case requires a different solution.

#20 - Wall Street purposely creates complicated fee structures and promotes short-term-oriented investments that are not the best for the investors.
            - This is caused by the greed of the companies who are trying to get investors in the habit of doing short-term trading so that the financial institutions make more money off transaction fees.


This list was not difficult in the sense that there are countless issues to choose from. However, once you can choose anything, then it becomes difficult to choose because you have too many options. I also wanted to choose more economically viable or product/item-based issues, but it is very hard to remember specific moments where I found something to be annoying, inefficient, etc. It seems that these small and random occurrences should be noted if one wants to remember them later. This is why my list ended up covering mostly wide-ranging issues rather than very specific opportunities for improvement. I should start keeping a journal for times when I notice bugs in my daily life.

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4 comments:

  1. Damien, I agree with the majority of your bugs, especially numbers 4-8. Although I would like to offer an alternative "why" to number 17. I completely agree that college tuition is high causing students to graduate with an extreme amount of debt but, do you think maybe this is a direct cause of government intervention? By that I mean, if our government didn't practically approve everyone for a school loan then the majority of people wouldn't be able to afford to attend. This would essentially force the college to lower their prices in order to continue to operate. Either way, great blog I thoroughly enjoyed it.

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  2. Hey Damien, I’m sure you were able to see what the main purpose of this assignment was… Discover unmet needs! Aka having an entrepreneurial point of view towards unsolved issues! Great post and keep up with the good work!

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  3. Hey, Damien! I think it’s pretty funny that your first item is about Florida drivers and it’s one of your longest points. I, and most of the rest of Florida can probably agree with you there. Our lists differed greatly as your list deals with many problems in society and the environment, and many of mine dealt with aspects of my everyday life that slow me down. I think this is a very interesting topic as your list would help the greater of humanity to improve, while my bug list would help with everyday life.

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  4. Damien,
    Reading your bug list was very inspiring for me because I believe that we see the world in similar ways. It is clear that these were all well thought out and went beyond the surface. Your insights were clear and highlight various issues with social, political, and environmental policies. Because I am a sustainability studies major, I particularly enjoyed 2-4 because of how obvious, but yet overlooked these issues are.

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