I prefer that we run our country as a place where religious persecution and conquests are left at the door. That should be obvious (though it clearly isn't to some). What's less obvious is how we can maintain appropriate levels of governance on multi-national corporate entities who don't/can't have a conscience or soul. Our laws and systems can only do so much to keep peace... we do still end up relying on people's individual and collective conscience to do much of the work. Unfortunately, when it comes to corporations, only the natural laws of capitalism are in force. If it isn't profitable, it isn't done. It is hard, but a most necessary challenge, to make education itself a sound investment (or profitable enterprise at worst) and thus extensible to the platform of capitalism. It is my belief that capitalism can only succeed in the long run if core social and environmental systems are inherently recognized as critical to any individual's or organization's success. One specific difficulty with this is the time horizon... companies rarely look or invest 50 years into the future... nor do people for that matter.

...skipping ahead...

I wouldn't say America is broken... for many reasons, this is not true and not the point. I would say that world problems are accelerating at an alarming rate. The gap between rich and poor is increasing every year. Our dependency upon limited natural resources is growing every year. And I would say that the few people in this world who are wealthy enough to afford education are of the same demographic that is heavily targeted by advertising - whose job it is to play upon people's weaknesses. This ends up creating a culture of materialism, unsustainable living, generally poor education and highly detached apathetic people in the richest parts of the world who have the most resources and obligation to help nurture the world as a whole. The few who know better feel the weight of futility and have turned their focus inward - to their own lives - which on outward appearance looks much the same as their neighbors (and consequently supports the belief that the status quo is perfectly appropriate).

I think we are facing systemic problems on a huge scale. The rise of multi-national corporations and the Internet is entirely new... our historical experiences do not directly relate. I also think it is easy for anyone to have the view that the world is improving in many underdeveloped areas... which gives rise to a debate about whether the world is getting better or worse. I'm certain this debate is not worthy of one's focus.