Please rate issue - "Governments should focus more on solving the immediate..."

[nisheeth]

"Governments should focus more on solving the immediate problems of today rather than trying to solve the anticipated problems of the future."

 

There’s an old Greek proverb which says - ‘One foot isn’t enough to walk with.’ Given issue states that government should focus on current issues while turning a blind eye to the anticipated problems of future. This is like walking with a single leg, and such a government is bound to flounder and to ultimately fail in its endeavor to ensure a good present and secure an even better future for its people. Best option for governance is to work on current problems keeping in view the future that the people envision for themselves.

 

While, solving current problems as fast and quickly as possible should be the primary aim of any Government, overlooking future problems is highly immature form of looking at things. In such a case many problems would keep on recurring, and the government would keep on using its “fire-fighting” techniques to solve them, without realizing what were the root causes that caused this “fire”. For example, every in an Agrarian economy, droughts might occur randomly, and each time government would work to provide financial and social help to its farmers and citizens. It might also import some foodgrain to prevent starvation. But, identifying the root cause would enable it to take preemptory actions to extirpate the basic reason for occurrence of such problems, or atleast to mitigate its effect on people. In this example, technologies for monsoon prediction, water storage can help mitigate the randomness and reduce the fire-fighting that govt has to do during each such occurrence.

 

Also, anticipating future problems would enable the administration to streamline its current work with the future needs of its citizens. For example, if floods are occurring often in a region, then government can build a dam with irrigation & hydroelectric power generation facility. This not only solves the problem of flooding, but it would also provide electricity and irrigation needs of the entire region for years to come. Thus, a bad situation can be reverted and the solution actually can do lot more benefit rather than just solving a problem.

 

Some might argue that focusing on future developments is wastage of resources that can be better used today. But such people don’t realize that working on future along with present would in fact help the people achieve more with less use of resources. Just solving the problem at hand is like taking a very insular view of a problem. For example, solving the problem of an epidemic in a region is fine, say the cost is 100$ to treat each patient. But, if along with this some vaccination program, which costs only 1$ per person to be vaccinated would prevent reoccurrence of such an epidemic, then it would be unwise to not plan and execute such a program.

 

In sum, keeping an eye on future while working in present is the only way for a government to ensure that its people make progress and it is the true sign of wisdom.

[XMizer]

Quite good, I'd give it a 5.0. Even though you are going against the speaker, I think you should also list some advantages of why the speaker thinks it is better to solve immediate problems. Afterwards, using those reasons, you can argue why you shouldn't keep a blind eye even with these advantages.

[ajay123]

Governments should focus on solving the immediate problems of today rather than on trying to solve the anticipated problems of the future.

Governments around the world are often perplexed in complexities about addressing current concerns with primacy or to tackle expected concerns first. Unequivocally the prior should be taken care of first rather than the latter. It is a no brainer that immediate issues concern us the most and help build a good image of the government-anticipated problems might be solved with time, technological improvements, or development of new techniques.

 

If one goes by classifying the concerns the most current one's seem to be effecting the society the most. An emergency water shortage in an already water shortage facing area will be taken care of first by supplying water tankers or water trains to alleviate the problem of residents first rather building a large artificial lakes or pipelines to permanently solve the problem. Convincingly, supplying water tankers first is the most logical choice to anyone as without water in the short term the living in the area would become unviable for the residents.

 

Public opinion shapes out of activeness of government to resolve short-term issues swiftly. Governments that react actively to near around issue enjoy a better public image. Populace is often least concerned about the expected problems of the future and seemingly deny their existence, no matter how importantly they may impact them later, they seem to be completely involved in everyday lives and problems. Governments who fail to deal with immediate problems affecting the public the most gradually lose confidence of the public and get replaced in the next elections. Shinzo Abe was known for his long-sightedness as a political leader in Japan however since the nuclear spillover in Fukushima and government’s inability to handle it without disrupting public lives. Giving a backlash to his image, as a political leader and further he had to take early retirement to save face from defeat in next elections.

 

Another, important aspect to be kept in conscience is that with the advent of technology most pf the problems get resolved in the future, be it medical science where new methods and practices are being derived meteorically, technology making our lives easier, or be it environmental engineering to improve environment, improve land use or recover land. Fracking was initially termed to have very dire consequences for the environment and faced severe criticism and protests but ultimately it lead to lower gas prices and reduced dependence on foreign countries, additionally giving a boost to local economies. Electoral results with reelection of the government is evident of public support.

 

Governments gain more confidence by solving immediate problems first as they are the most concerning to the public in general. We can conveniently say that public opinion is shaped out of quick and swift addressing of arising issues. The anticipated problems sure need to be focused but are ultimately solved with technology and newer methods. The best approach on solving such anticipated problems is by solving part of it periodically in near time rather than giving complete focus to them.

 

Please rate my essay as well awaiting your kind replies.