Approach to Problems

Approach to Problems

In the society today, people face multiple challenges that range from war to economic crisis. The problems multiply at each dawn because humans employ unnecessary strategies to solve such while simple solutions are available for application at a relatively lower cost. I agree with Levitt and Dunbar (152) that people fail to realize the importance of investing in cheap and simple solutions. Instead, they tackle surfacing issues inappropriately without taking a time to identify the source. Mostly, the strategists address the symptoms and not the real cause hence a recurrence of such challenges.

Human health is delicate and demands care and dedication by the caregivers. It is a costly undertaking to treat diseases rather than prevention. The authors are convinced that cheaper solutions to health issues affecting the society today are within reach. Ailments like cancer, Diabetes and Obesity can be effectively mitigated if the government, society and the vulnerable parties combine efforts to report cases early for a cheaper solution. Instead, most people do not heed to calls to conduct regular check up for chronic diseases to ensure early detection. As a result, the government spends billions of dollars on a daily basis to treat diseases that are already at an advanced stage. The majority of cancer patients, for instance, fail to recover especially if the disease was diagnosed at a late stage. If this is the case, a mindset that cancer and other diseases are incurable grips the society.  As individuals become disillusioned, it gets harder to source for a cheaper remedy.

War is a manmade problem with a possible simple solution. Unfortunately, world leaders employ complicated strategies to tame its spread. Syria’s civil war is a classic example of a problem that escalates as the world watch. Ending Syrian conflict is easy if the warring factions can implement the rules as laid down by the UN Security Council. However, world powers like Russia and the United States have taken sides with each of them unable to compromise their hard-line positions for a lasting solution to be forged. As the dominant parties engage in diplomatic spats, Syrian war yields other problems such as refugee crisis and migrant issues in Europe. A shifted attention masks the real problem thus hindering chances of immediate, cheap and simple remedy. It is a worrying trend that the leaders shrug off cheap and simple solutions to opt for complex strategies of handling a crisis situation.

Problems thought to be engineered by nature are actually caused by human actions. Today, the weather patterns are increasingly becoming hard to predict. Extreme climatic conditions are becoming a norm in all parts of the world. In fact, heavy downpours in the United States, drought and famine in Africa, and earthquakes in Japan and Nepal are all directly linked to global warming and climatic change. What most countries dispute is that carbon emissions due to industrial activity are to blame for environmental such calamities. A simple and cheap solution to this problem is the adoption of an environmental strategy to cut carbon emissions. Green forms of energy should replace non-renewable sources such as fossil fuel and coal in factories. Such a transition ought to be seamless and non-disruptive. However, countries like China, India and the United states are unwilling to reach a consensus on how to reverse the trend. Extensive damage persists as the debate continues. The representatives of these countries are aware that postponing the issue on climate will result in serious consequences that demand costly and complicated solutions.

Over the past decade, a threat to wildlife has increased tremendously. In fact, most wild animals get extinct at a faster rate than any other time in the recorded history. Marine life is also not an exception as heavy fishing continues. Some of the contributing factors include illegal hunting, corruption, poaching, and heavy demands for animal parts in the black market. Solving this issue requires coordinated effort between the state, local population and wildlife authorities. In addition, local residents should be educated about the importance of wildlife in the ecosystem. However, the authorities' attention is focused on far much complicated and less effective solutions such as a crackdown on confiscated wild products including ivory, leopard skin, and rhino horns. While this partially solves the crisis, there is a need for more effective but cheaper strategies. A cheap and lasting solution to restore wildlife to the original status should entail funding of local government and wildlife agencies instead of recurrent expenditures on port confiscations.

In summary, it is clear that an effective approach to the problems affecting the society should be less costly and simple. Such strategies should focus on eliminating the causative agents to ensure that an amicable and permanent solution is reached. As such, I agree with Levitt and Dunbar (156) that most of the crises affecting humans today are manmade and can be solved if the professionals pay a keen attention to their root cause rather than focusing on the treatment of symptoms. Therefore, diseases, wars, or climate change can be controlled if all the parties involved agree on a lasting solution.

Works Cited

Levitt, Steven D, and Stephen J. Dubner. Freakonomics: A Rogue Economist Explores the Hidden Side of Everything. Allen Lane, 2011:1-241. Print.