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Tackling The Really Big Problems
A great way to boost your career is to solve a
really big problem. But you say, “That’s
not so easy.”
Trying to teach by example, in two recent
columns, I proposed solutions to three big
problems: boring, ineffective schools,
time-robbing, air-polluting toll plazas, and having
to build regressively taxing, freeway-clogging
casinos to buy off tiny Indian tribes.
A reader, Suzanne Spence from Sunnyvale, CA,
then emailed me: “Great stuff. Next, would you
tell us how to solve the Palestinian/Israeli crisis
and how to change our ridiculous system of choosing
our elected leaders. And while you’re at it,
tell us how to stop global warming.”
Okay. I’ll give it a shot. And at the end,
I’ll offer you some tips on how to solve a big
problem of your own choosing.
Reinventing our election system
All campaigns should be just three weeks long
and publicly funded. Under our current system, most
really good candidates are unwilling to run because
it requires endless fundraising and post-election
payback instead of decision-making based on
what’s best for the citizenry.
Today’s mass media (Internet, TV, radio,
and print) would allow the public adequate exposure
to the candidates for far less money than currently
spent
As an antidote to spinmeister-driven speeches
and commercials (including irrelevant deceptions by
the likes of the Swift Boaters and Texans for
“Truth,”) every registered voter would
receive a one-pager produced by a non-partisan
organization such as the League of Women Voters
describing each candidate’s voting record and
positions on the central issues.
Solving the Palestinian-Israeli
problem
For thousands of years, Jews and Arabs have been
unable to live peacefully side by side. How naive
to have placed Israel right in the middle of the
Arab world. The solution to the Palestinian/Israeli
crisis is for another country with ample unused
land such as the US, Canada, or Australia to offer
an Israel-sized sliver of low-value land as the New
Israel.
Such countries set aside much larger swaths
merely to protect trees or wildlife, so it is
reasonable to assume that at least one country
would offer a sliver to protect humans. This is
especially likely because the donor country would
become an instant worldwide hero for solving the
age-old Arab-Israeli conflicts and reducing the
global threat of Islamic terrorism. Plus, the New
Israel would become that country’s deeply
indebted ally. That is significant because Israel,
for example, is an acknowledged world leader in how
to defend against terrorism, something, alas, of
ever increasing importance.
Of course, it’s possible that no country
would give that sliver to the Israelis. After all,
Franklin Delano Roosevelt refused even to accept a
ship of Holocaust victims during World War II. But
I believe the chances of a country donating that
sliver are far greater than the chances of the
Palestinians and Israelis peacefully living
side-by-side.
All Israeli citizens would be given the option
to move to New Israel. Low-income people could
apply for help with moving expenses. The World
Bank, G-8, or other consortium would fund this. Of
course, some Israelis would elect to remain in
Israel, but over time, most would emigrate to New
Israel or other countries. That would peaceably
transition the current Israel/Palestine into a
Palestinian state with too few Jews to engender
significant conflict.
As a child of Holocaust survivors, I certainly
understand that many Israelis would find it
difficult to trade their historical homeland for a
new one, but to save lives and ensure ongoing peace
for both Jews and Arabs, I believe it is a
compromise worth making.
Reducing Global Warming
The biggest source of global warming is vehicle
emission.
Stage 1 of my solution is based on current
technology. The 2004 Toyota Prius, a midsized car
with plenty of power, averages 45 miles per gallon
while polluting far less than conventional cars. I
propose that the G-8 or other consortium of nations
agree that all new cars, trucks, and buses to be
sold in their countries be powered by hybrid
engines or even better technologies as they come
available. That would drastically reduce pollution
without mass transit schemes’ enormous cost
and restriction of freedom to travel.
Stage 2: Hydrogen vehicles offer a
zero-pollution solution but broad implementation is
impractical for at least a decade. To encourage
vehicle manufacturers to prioritize the necessary
research, the above consortium would mandate that
beginning in, say, 2012, increasing percentages of
vehicles be hydrogen-powered.
In addition to reducing global warming, this
plan would reduce dependence on fundamentalist
extremist countries for our energy.
You: Mega-Problem Solver
Okay, now back to you. I want you to solve a big
problem that would help ensure your career
success.
1. What’s a big problem your current
employer faces? Spend a half-hour today thinking
about how to solve it. If necessary, get help.
2. What’s a big societal problem that you
want to take a shot at solving? Spend a half-hour
today thinking about how to solve it. If necessary,
get help.
3. Write a one-pager describing your solution.
Show it to the immediate universe. Keep improving
it until lots of people say, “Wow!” But
remember that many innovations are first ridiculed,
later adopted, and then thought to have always
existed.
Whether or not your solution works, you win.
You’ll feel good about having tried to make a
big difference, you’ll have impressed others
that you think big, and who knows, maybe you'll
cure cancer.
© 2008, Marty
Nemko
* * *
Marty
Nemko holds a PhD from the University of
California, Berkeley, and subsequently taught in
Berkeley’s Graduate School of Education. He is
the worklife columnist in the Sunday San Francisco
Chronicle and is the producer and host of Work With
Marty Nemko, heard Sundays at 11 on 91.7 FM in
(NPR, San Francisco), and worldwide on
www.martynemko.com
 .
400+ of his published writings are available free
on that website and is a co-editor of
Cool
Careers for Dummies.
and author of The All-in-One College Guide.
E-Mail.
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