Forrest Saye - Procrastination Nation

To procrastinate, simply put, is to be a slacker and to put off doing something until absolutely necessary, or even later than that. Therefore procrastination is commonly manifested as not getting things done on time. Obviously to not get things done can be highly catastrophic, since it is like adding weight to an already burdened mule. The more weight that is added to the mule, the more that will come crashing down when too much is added, and that is the true disaster of procrastination, having so much to do, but so little time, that it seems impossible to get all the work done (as it very well may be). Procrastination could be anything from not writing the final paper for an English class, or not stockpiling any food for a disastrous storm; the consequences for not doing the important action is that you must accomplish more in less time, time you may or may not have. In any situation, procrastination is like playing a game where the reward is failure, because if you do put work off, then you risk quality even if you do get it done on time. Even procrastinating from taking a break happens to the folks who overwork themselves, and sometimes when that person breaks down, the entire operation is at risk. Many people would say that procrastination is not a problem, and for them it probably is not, since they do not waste themselves or their time; however, procrastination will always affect them for as long as the rest of the world is procrastinating. The people who do not have jobs and live off of the government is a fine example, after all, the government’s money comes from the people who procrastinate little enough to make money. So those who say it is not an issue have simply not yet addressed it yet, and need to stop their procrastination before it is too late and even they lose their self worth. What kind of a world is it where no one ever accomplishes anything productive? What happens when something devastating happens that could have ad should have been prevented? If procrastination cannot stop soon, humans as a race will lose their past, present and future and cease to exist productively. Such a large goal of stopping procrastination is definitely a challenging process since it is such a widespread issue. If individuals can manage to understand how they fit into a scale of how much they actually accomplish as compared to everyone else, then perhaps we can work out a way to move forward. The solution may be closer than we know if we could just stop procrastinating and come up with an answer to make every human understand their self worth.

XXL America - Kenneth Tollefson

Today it has become common knowledge on which country is the most obese country in the world, the United States of America. America is by far the most obese country in the world, and the obesity pandemic seems to be only increasing as time goes on. Obesity has become increasingly more prominent since the 80s into the 90s and the early 2000s and is still continuing to increase. This is an issue for the obese as well as America as a whole as health and resources are at stake. To combat obesity, obesity must be stopped in its early stages, literally, America's children need to be educated and have their obesity inducing trends stopped before they become adults.

Population and Resource Problems- Joel Goers

The planet made history this year achieving a population of 7 billion human beings. As a species, humans are the most complex, intelligent, and successful on earth and at this point in space and time, there just so happens to be a lot of them. Inevitably this increase in population has and will result in a decrease of the natural resources available to humans now and in the future. The world is getting smaller and smaller for humans and the resources they use to sustain their lifestyles are dwindling. There are too many humans in the world for them to continue to use resources the way they do. According to a statistic on the fertility rate from the U.S. Bureau of the census, the fertility rate has been falling since the 1960’s even though the population has been growing more and more rapidly (Tietenburg 104). This statistic is significant because it shows that even though the fertility rate is falling and down by nearly half, there are enough humans having children in the world to allow for population growth to continue. A change in the way humans gather, store and distribute their resources is needed because inefficient use/distribution of their limited resources has resulted in serious hunger, depression of economy, war, disease, a lack of energy sources like oil, fuels, coal and major racial/social inequalities. Resource scarcity has always been a problem for human survival, but the increased competition for resources over the last century is just the beginning to a bigger and more dangerous problem for the world.

Put an End to Welfare-Jordan Harder

It was during “President Franklin D. Roosevelt[s]” (“Welfare Information) term when welfare was first introduced to America. Welfare is a program that supports many people in America. It can be in many different forms. Some get school lunch programs, or cash assistance, or receive it because of mental and physical problems. Welfare is supposed to be there for assistance with bills, but some American’s abuse the welfare system. It has been shown that “hundreds of billions of public and private dollars are spent annually on efforts to assist the poor” (Rodgers 3). If they can live and get by with just welfare why would they get off and actually get a job? If we do not fix the welfare problem now, the United States will go bankrupt from having to pay people who are not contributing. For the year 2011, the spending for welfare is $953 billion (Bradley). A lot of Americans believe that “the best way to reduce poverty is simply to abolish all welfare programs” (Rodgers 71).The solution to people abusing welfare is to end welfare completely, and the government will do this by passing a law that says all welfare and its programs should be eliminated immediately.

Junk Food Taxes - Amy Charles

Obesity has been a very large, growing problem in America since the 1970s. This is becoming an increasing issue for those of them who are affected by obesity, especially because their health is at stake. What is obesity exactly? According to Labor Law Journal, “Obesity is defined as being more than twice one’s optimal weight or more than 100 pounds over one’s optimal weight.” For many American’s, obesity can be diagnosed by the naked eye. What people cannot see, however, is the health problems brought on by obesity. A very common disease it brings is type II diabetes. Five researchers studying obesity have investigated the relationship between obesity and diabetes: “The risk for development of type II diabetes is positively correlated with BMI, and this disease is 20 times more likely to develop in persons with BMI 35.0 or greater” (Boogerd, Alverdy, Kumar, Olsen, and Schwenk 725-732). Sadly, obesity is ruining innocent lives. America’s belts have expanded and kitchen pantries have grown with little effort to solve the problem. In order to combat obesity by 2024, a tax will be placed on all foods with fat-bearing ingredients after consulting with Congress representatives and eventually business owners of small stores, restaurants, and even vending machines.

Quite a majority of people may argue that obesity is not that big of a deal. This majority of people include those of them who are obese, and those of them who are not obese. Obese Americans that don’t see this as a crisis may see themselves as healthy and perfectly fine. Seeing other obese people around them, they may not see obesity as anything to worry about, and would think large people are simply big boned and have a little extra fat. So what? However, they cannot see the underlying problems that will arise in the future, and these problems can even erupt unexpectedly. Studies have shown that obesity brings on several diseases. “The Framingham Heart Study revealed that body weight is positively correlated with development of congestive heart failure. Excessive body weight is linked with high total cholesterol level…” (Boogerd, Alverdy, Kumar, Olsen, and Schwenk 725-724). Diseases such as diabetes, heart disease, cancer, and many others might have the potential to cause an early death, and obese people ought to show concerns. Treatment procedures for these diseases also cost Americans thousands of dollars. It is a much greater investment to be conscious of health and avoid the crippling medical bills.

Banish Winter Blues-- Burn the Books Jessica Lucy

The human body cannot survive without three things: water, food and heat. The last has proved a difficulty in the recent economy. Many homes struggle with maintaining a comfortable temperature in the winter time because of the high price of the natural gas needed to fuel a home’s fireplace. Even worse than this though, are the people who do not have homes. Those who live on the street, subject to all of the horrors a bad winter can bring. This is a problem. When people begin to dread the cold instead of reveling in it, a solution must be implemented. This problem has not been one very long; twenty years ago the economy was in better shape, resulting in financially sound households. “Rising natural gas prices are a concern… most households rely on gas to heat their homes in the winter months” (Kliesen 3). Because of the raised price of living, more are cold during the wintertime, be it from homelessness or outlandish natural gas prices. This problem raises many other problems. The risk of illness and disease, even death, and the overall decrease of the standard American living are dependent on this problem and whether or not it can be solved. To contest this impending threat, burning books must be used as a heat source, becoming a government run program to keep winters warm for everyone, regardless of their living situations.

Underage Drinking - Jacob Wagner

Underage drinking may be all fun and games in college, but there is a serious side to it that involves drunk driving and other consequences. Two words that come to someone’s mind when college is mentioned is drinking and parties. Society encourages and expects drinking while in college, no matter what age. Drunk driving tends to come about from college and parties. Drunk drivers are an everyday fear that people face while driving. People fear that it is not as safe to go out on the roads at night anymore. The problem behind underage drinking is that adolescents do not know enough information about alcohol and the drinking age is too high. A proposed solution to underage drinking is to lower the minimum drinking age to 19 years of age and teach adolescents more about alcohol, so in order to do this, by 2012 the government will need to pass a law lowering the drinking age and the schools will need to offer a mandatory alcohol information class during high school, like drivers Ed.