Ask HN: What problems have obvious solutions that everyone seems to miss/avoid? | Hacker News Reader

Ask HN: What problems have obvious solutions that everyone seems to miss/avoid?

12 pointsvalty22 comments

Something where you think "if only people did this reasonable thing". Something people debate endlessly and try hundreds of different things but seem to avoid an obvious thing.

View on HN

Replace churches with a secular alternative, with trained psychologists instead of priests, 1-on-1 brief sessions instead of confession, and mindfulness meditation instead of prayer.

Ensure everyone in the community participates by giving local tax incentives (i.e. cut council tax by X%).

I think people today desperately need a 3rd space, a local community and a sense of belonging, and this will provide both. Ensure that people living locally, with different backgrounds, see each other once a week, which would naturally lead to some communication. The 'priest' will be in a good position to provide pastoral care, be able to help people that are lonely or otherwise struggling. Many would be willing to help struggling people locally, so in many ways it is a coordination problem which this would solve.

I feel like by becoming less religious we have thrown the baby out with the bathwater and lost some very good things along with the bad. It does not have to be that way.

This almost sounds like a description of my local unitarian universalist church (minus the “trained psychologist” part - there are quite a few in the congregation, but our minister went to theology school).

Chesterson’s Fence comes to mind. If you think you have an obvious solution, you’re almost surely missing something.

Killing people obviously has repercussions. Building more housing obviously has more complexities. Zoning is hard. Forcibly taking land is complicated. Building the other amenities (transportation, parking, etc.) is hard. Taxing billionaires is complicated. They fund other things, can put financial pressure in other places, etc. California’s exodus of the rich is a real problem. etc.

I think the real question of value here is “what am I missing such that I think obvious solution X solves the problem?”

For me:

- Climate change = nuclear power

- Online social media abuse (e.g. Twitter) = shareable and transitive block lists

For me:

- Climate change = fewer people

- Online social media abuse (e.g. Twitter) = Don’t use social media

This works for a person (aka you), but terrible for convincing others and changing minds!

Oh I don’t even listen to myself. I’m watching TikTok like 15 hours a week.

Social media = Eliminate reach

The housing crisis.

Build more houses, increase supply, lower prices. It's simple on the surface, but unfortunately, NIMBYism, political interests, status quo, antiquated zoning/permitting, etc etc makes this far too difficult.

Here is a controversial one which I don't personally agree with, but it certainly fits the description of "would avoid endless work and debate by doing something super obvious".

If you catch someone doing something really, really bad, and have clear evidence, just kill them. No court. No prison. No attempt at reform. No debate about mental health. Just shoot them. Quick and easy.

Again, I don't personally agree with this line of thinking. But pretty much everyone avoids what would probably be the most obvious solution. And if I were on a deserted island, it's probably what I'd advocate for.

Of course, the problem is people have very different opinions on what constitutes "really really bad" behavior such that it justifies killing someone. Even on a deserted island, I don't think I would advocate for this. It would have to be very peculiar circumstances.

Would witnessing someone killing someone else qualify? I could see an unintended chain of events bubbling up here.

this is how older communes worked isnt it, and the increases in population and inability of people to "know everyone in the town" led to what we now see as legal systems.

idk how well it would work in this day and age?

Tax billionaires to reduce income inequality

Negative taxes instead of complex red-tape-filled subsidies and minimum wage and whatnot.

Saner politics -> ranked choice voting.

Australia has ranked choice voting for all federal, state, and local elections (we call it preferential voting). And while our politics is a lot saner than the US, it is not a panacea.

Ranked choice voting is not gonna solve the problem. You need to add none-of-the-above to the ballot, which will count as a vote against all the politicians.

If no one wins the election, that is okay. A new election can always be had.

Stop taxing income and start taxing land and other resource use.

Deleting social media apps from my phone

Encourage couples to have fewer children with the intent of reducing the world population.

About 100 years ago, the world had about 2 billion people. Today it is 8 billion people. The world population has quadrupled in just 100 years. I believe that the world today is woefully overpopulated, and it puts great strain on our planet with finite resources. We've fundamentally had to change the way we produce food and create energy, but it's only sustainable for the short term, and only for those privileged enough to live in developed countries.

Global warming, runaway inflation, the housing crisis. We propose so many solutions to many of society's ills, but nobody ever suggests "maybe there's just too many damn people."

Developed countries are not having kids. Developing ones are still playing catchup. I don't saying this to demographics with declining birthrates is useful, and I don't think those in developing countries would appreciate the advice.

Overpopulation to me is such a cop out answer to solving these problems. Surely there is a world where we can support 8 billion people on earth.

But God forbid I have to live in a shack with my family and friends again. I want my million dollar home and cars and phones and computers for my family of 3.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com