Sue-per sized
Should someone be allowed to sue a fast-food restaurant for causing obesity? If the public is permitted to do that, then we should also be able to sue Dillards or the Gap for enticing us to overspend on the latest fashions, says Dr. Janet Colson, professor, human sciences and nutritionist, Middle Tennessee State University. "Many people run up credit card bills because advertisements for the latest fashions entice them to spend. The stress associated with debt can pose health problems." In the cases of eating and spending, people just need to learn discipline and self-control, she notes.
Winning acceptance
By teaching diversity, we can make definite strides toward acceptance, says Dr. Carol Michler Detmer, director, Child Development Center at Middle Tennessee State University. However, the child who has a language delay or poor social skills is the hardest to integrate into the mainstream of a classroom. "The example set by older siblings and parents (behavior and remarks do not go unnoticed, regardless of what the older person says) play an important role, as well as even preschoolers wanting acceptance from their friends. This may mean that a child does not choose to play with another child if they feel peers or others would not approve."
Partially privatizing SS
By 2018, the inflow of payroll tax (FICA) payments will be eclipsed by the recipients' benefits—and the Social Security Administration will have to start cashing in the U.S. government bonds in their so-called "Trust Fund," says Dr. William Ford, Weatherford Chair of Finance at Middle Tennessee State University and former president of the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta. A final solution to the SS crisis "involves partial privatization of SS by allowing younger workers to put some of their FICA taxes into privately owned IRA-like accounts, which would yield much higher benefits, over time, than today's system," he says. They could also will these privately owned accounts to their children, unlike the present system that leaves nothing to pass on, he adds.
'Financial rape'
Drug costs are rising to uncontrollable, outrageous proportions, and the industry is a free market, unregulated by government, says Dr. Ken Edmisson Jr., associate professor, nursing, Middle Tennessee State University. Many people cannot afford the medicines they need to sustain life or to fend off life-threatening illnesses. "This practice of the pharmaceutical industry of financial rape is unconscionable, unethical and has to stop. It is unethical in terms of pricing a life-sustaining product out of the cost reach of an individual who needs it." Drug prices must be better controlled, he contends.
Rehabilitation
A number of prison rehabilitation programs have been shown to be effective in reducing drug use and lowering criminality, says Dr. Robert Rogers, associate professor, criminal justice administration, Middle Tennessee State University, who has worked inside prison walls. "The problem is that we spend so much money on incarcerating offenders that we have little money left to rehabilitate them. "¦ Non-violent first-time drug offenders, for example, clog up our prison systems. Research shows that "¦ forcing them to take part in [rehab programs] reduces their criminality and drug abuse after release into the community."
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