The concept of money IS the concept of ability.

Get rid of religion altogether- I know ultimately all religions promote peace and love and whatnot, but a lot of today's problems are stem from religious motives. The whole struggle between Islam and secularism in the middle-east, the Palestine-Israel conflict, tensions in Indonesia, unwillingness to use condoms in Africa and SA, conflicts in western societies between western norms and values and religiously acceptable practices, etc. etc.

This has been the same for many centuries and I can't see it changing any time soon., unfortunately.

+100000000000000000 Mr_rb

People are religious in general.

Mr_rb, Stalin, Mao, Pol Pot: all of them atheists, all of them >1 million death count.

Stalin, Mao abd Pol Pot weren't atheists. They were communists.

I'm not saying atheists are saints- that's not my point. I believe conflict is part of human nature. However, you can't deny the fact that religion creates an additional difference between large groups of people and therefore adds another possible cause for conflicts. Also, a lot of values promoted in many religions conflict with practices and habits developed over the past centuries such as birth control, equality between men and women, use of medicines and certain types of medical research, gay-marriage, euthanasia, etc. etc.

Without religion many of these problems would be non-issues.

free education for all

Remove 6 & 1/2 billion people.

hey guys you are missing the point here
not looking for the reasons why the world is fuck up i am looking for solutions

"Free education for all."
The occupy people have college degrees and they can't find a job.
The occupy people have massive student debts for degrees and they can't find a job.
The solution is definitely not "free education for all."

Who would judge "ability" Hyperion?

You cant "fix" the world.
Its like saying "What is the perfect political system?"
No such thing.

Humans are intrinsically flawed, and hence anything, any system, any civilization, any idea etc that involves humans will also be intrinsically flawed.
Hence, no "solution".

Make individuals completely responsible for their own actions.
If you sign a mortgage it is entirely your fault for not having legal representation look over the mortgage before you sign it.
Expand the court system so that individuals can afford to seek legal remedies and don't have to wait to get them.
When people are sure they will get sued and it will happen in a speedy manner the world will change.
Decentralize many government roles to the state and local levels that are closer to the people.
End entitlements so that prices for medical really go down.
The proof medical prices will go down, the price for various elective surgeries not covered by insurance has consistently gone down while 3rd party paid costs have exploded.
Just for starters.

@mr rb - religion from an anthropological standpoint is just a means to unify a "tribe" or society. ALL societies thorughout human history have believed that their society is right and natural, and that all others are wrong or unnatural.

Religion is not the cause of that mistruct of the unknown, it is just an example of how one society unifies itself.

That being said, i am an atheist, and would like to see God, Allah and Vishnu all go the way of Zeus and Thor...but the transition from religion to mythology takes thousands of years.

@ taos - yes, education is a key, but how can it be "free"?
you mean no one has to pay money for it? So who does the educating? Millions of "volunteer" teachers? Who feeds those teachers kids?

@ Macchiavelli, the problem with religion is that it does not only unify people within a society but also creates friction within that society. Not so long ago most countries had a fairly homogeneous population religion-wise but with increased globalization nowadays a lot of countries have multiple major religions- this creates friction between these 'tribes'. Additionally, people with a more extreme interpretation of their respective holy books or prophesies see it as their objective to spread their belief- this also creates conflicts of course.

Also the point I made earlier that religion sometimes conflicts with modern notions of science, medicine, etc. distinguishes religion from other means of unifying groups. I agree with your hopes for the future but am more optimistic about the transition from religion to mythology or atheism. For example, in my country (Netherlands), 100% of the population was religious in 1809 but only 50% was religious in 2009. Education makes a big difference, I think.

education and health free for all
i think is the most important human rigth
who is going to pay for that? taxes
then you will say that biger taxes will bring poverty rigth?
not really
every sick person wastes tons of money to be cured and afects the economy not going to work,so i say prevent it.
free education will at long term produce more efective economy
this two togetter will prevent many minor crimes saving money used for security(paid by taxes)

netherlands is a great example

@machiavelli "Humans are intrinsically flawed, and hence anything, any system, any civilization, any idea etc that involves humans will also be intrinsically flawed."

- speak for yourself :P, but seriously, humans are flawed by what measure?

If you are able to define some 'perfect human' then sure no humans live up to that. However i think that such a thing exists only in the same way as good/evil exist, as conceptual object created by our minds.

What i'm trying to say is, you are making up flaws for humans.

I think humans are by their very nature flexible automatons reacting to their environment (and altering it) - we can create a system which promotes cooperative human behaviour, but humans are designed to find the best solution/action to any problem, so will naturally seek any loopholes in whatever system we create.

I don't see this behaviour as flawed, we did not evolve in system which we created ourselves, we evolved in a system which was largely beyond our control. Nature itself. Thus our behaviour is the best we have to increase survival chances in Nature.

@Volunteer teachers.

Everyone can volunteer, is every working adult gave up 4 hours per week to teaching 'something' the rest of their hours could be used to feed their children. The concept of a civic duty could be employed, along with a requirement for citizenship to include the duty of being a citizen... I don't see that this kind of system is either unworkable nor is it likely to be damaging to society.

So in a nutshell, orathaic, the way to fix the world is to get all the people to act in the way you believe is right and proper? You'll be a fine candidate for one of the more interesting dictators, methinks :).

Still, on the subject of teachers I would make the radical sugestion that perhaps it is better to have our children taught by trained professionals who have at least some desire to teach than by an army of volunteers whose varying styles and abilities will drive students to destraction.

Get everyne to read 10 books from 10 different countries/point of views.

After all, The More You Know... ;)

Individual freedom is more important that education. Better to be a freeman with common sense and experience than an educated slave.

It's a pity you're neither

i see freedom and education as the same thing
knowlege and education is not the same

PS that was @Tettleton, i don't want to offend anyone who didn't get that because they muted him

There is no freedom without education.

But then, as a myrmidonic conservative Tea Party drone, I wouldn't expect anything less from you, TC...respond to me, please, if I'm wrong...

Otherwise, I'll assume you've simply kept me muted and prefer to be blissfully ignorant of all that disagrees with your narrow vision of the world.

Make everyone play Diplomacy 24/7

I say we foster an environment of acceptance.