World We Dare To Imagine Post 1
World We Dare To Imagine Post 1
This is a very difficult post for me to write because I wouldn't say I have a simple problem that I have a passion for fixing. As I approach graduation, I have been so focused on my career that I have not given much time to anything else. However, this semester, I am taking a class called "Social Problems" in which I learned a lot about issues or society faces which has sparked an interest in many fields for me.
Since I don't have a single passion for me, I wanted to break this post into two things. The first is housing issues, second is our education system. My family is involved in real estate and recent laws have incentivized real estate developers to build more low-income housing. I was pleasantly surprised by this new initiative and I think it is wonderful but there is still so much room for growth. I would love to start a coalition of real estate developers to work alongside the city planners and activists to find the best and most realistic solutions to allow developers to do their job while providing more housing options for the working class. In San Diego, rents are very high and there is a housing shortage and many people working 40-hours a week do not earn enough money for rent. I would love to live in a society where any person who puts in the work to work a full-time job, is comfortable enough to have an affordable place to live.
Secondly, I think our education system is in dire need of help and people don't realize how big of a crisis it is in. Many politicians have to focus on issues such as homelessness and Medicare to help today's adults but I would love to see politicians focus on the future. Sadly, many of today's problem is nearly impossible to solve, but fixing the education system can set up many future generations for success. While I am very passionate about this problem as every kid should be given a fair opportunity to learn at a respectable institution, I do not know what the solution is. So for the meantime, I would love to read about and conduct studies to figure out the most effective methods of learning for children of different ages and demographics.
This is a very difficult post for me to write because I wouldn't say I have a simple problem that I have a passion for fixing. As I approach graduation, I have been so focused on my career that I have not given much time to anything else. However, this semester, I am taking a class called "Social Problems" in which I learned a lot about issues or society faces which has sparked an interest in many fields for me.
Since I don't have a single passion for me, I wanted to break this post into two things. The first is housing issues, second is our education system. My family is involved in real estate and recent laws have incentivized real estate developers to build more low-income housing. I was pleasantly surprised by this new initiative and I think it is wonderful but there is still so much room for growth. I would love to start a coalition of real estate developers to work alongside the city planners and activists to find the best and most realistic solutions to allow developers to do their job while providing more housing options for the working class. In San Diego, rents are very high and there is a housing shortage and many people working 40-hours a week do not earn enough money for rent. I would love to live in a society where any person who puts in the work to work a full-time job, is comfortable enough to have an affordable place to live.
Secondly, I think our education system is in dire need of help and people don't realize how big of a crisis it is in. Many politicians have to focus on issues such as homelessness and Medicare to help today's adults but I would love to see politicians focus on the future. Sadly, many of today's problem is nearly impossible to solve, but fixing the education system can set up many future generations for success. While I am very passionate about this problem as every kid should be given a fair opportunity to learn at a respectable institution, I do not know what the solution is. So for the meantime, I would love to read about and conduct studies to figure out the most effective methods of learning for children of different ages and demographics.
I totally agree with you on the housing problem. There should be no reason why a person who works 40+ hours a week cannot afford housing. I am curious though, how would it be ensured that the low-income housing would be given to the people making a low income, rather than someone making more money but wants to save money and live in housing that costs less?
ReplyDeleteAs for the education system, I think a step in the right direction would be to offer teachers a more respectable wage. I think there are many people who would be fantastic teachers but choose other careers instead because there isn't a lot of money to be made in teaching. If there were better wages, I think it would draw in more people who are capable of being great instructors.
I also agree with you on both issues. They are both extremely complicated problems that have numerous variables, so it is difficult sometimes to figure out what social policies actually produce progress. For example, I can see both sides of rent control---on the one hand it is important to protect tenants from outrageous rent increases, but I can also see how it takes away the incentives for developer to build more housing and if supply of housing does not keep up with demand then prices will naturally rise. I think your coalition idea is great. Building more housing is obviously the answer, but I think that including city planners, activists, and locals in the process could help make sure that all parties are better off. As for the school system I think it would be a good start to try to change the way government money is distributed to public schools. Money should be dispersed equally among schools in a city or county, and should not be dependent on property taxes in the local community. Establishing an organization to push this change could be an interesting idea.
ReplyDeleteI really like your idea to start a coalition that focuses on low-income housing. This is definitely a problem faced in a lot of cities, and the key is trying to incentivize real estate developers as much as possible. I agree that current rents are getting absurd and are barely affordable for those working full-time jobs. Socially responsible real estate developers would be a great thing to see, and could really help certain communities. Working alongside city planners could definitely make this plan successful.
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