Trying to get a clear idea of the damage

I've been thinking about generic things that are wrong with my country (the United States) but there are so many things that I forget about some while I'm focused on others.
I also believe that if we could make a list we could begin thinking of reasonable ways that members of the community can change things for the better.

If you can add to or expand on any of the below, that'd be great.

>Corporate and Government Relationships
>Poor public education system
>Separation and unnecessary priviledges of public officials
>Disinterest in politics
>Increasing obesity rates
>Imcreasing divorce rates?

For the record of interpretation, is this a list of the things we want to improve or things we want to cause?

Improve.

George Carlin The Best 3 Minutes of His Career "The American Dream"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rsL6mKxtOlQ

Yuri Bezmenov - How To Brainwash A Nation
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zeMZGGQ0ERk

Corporate and Government Relationships
Economic interventionism opens up loopholes for corporations to lobby for policies that most of the public don't understand. This is a critical problem.
Poor public education system
Spending on education has increased dramatically since the 70s yet there has been no improvement in academic achievement. Obviously the problem is in policy, I'm not an expert and I don't know all the technical details, but I am pretty much certain anyone in the government who isn't attempted serious educational reform is not an expert either.
Separation and unnecessary priviledges of public officials
You're going to have to be more specific, there are quite a lot of unnecessary privileges to cover here.
Disinterest in politics
http://www.infoplease.com/ipa/A0781453.html
Of course a fundamental strategy for gaining votes is to gain interest from non-voters, all things considered though disinterest in politics is of least concern.
Increasing obesity rates
People don't seem to realise the significance of exercise and fatty sugary shit even though the government rams it down their throat, banning happy meals and so forth. This isn't a major problem though.
Imcreasing divorce rates?
http://www.edivorcepapers.com/divorce-statistics/divorce-rate-statistics.html
Seems to be decreasing. Someone who wants to change things for the better needs to have a unique perspective, they need to be able to accept criticism, be practical, accept when they make mistakes, be willing to learn new things while being totally skeptical of everything at the same time, they need to take a pace back and look at things in totality. For instance most people in the world are poorer than minimum wage workers in 1st world countries, technology has by far been the biggest mover and shaker in the world, not political ideology, not even major wars have had as much impact. If I were benevolent dictator of the world I might as well just plough most of the GDP into research and development projects to make it a better place. Of course I'm not benevolent, I'm a corruptible human and should never be allowed to become dictator, I'm just illustrating a point and giving some perspective.

Spending on education has increased dramatically since the 70s yet there has been no improvement in academic achievement. Obviously the problem is in policy, I'm not an expert
Obviously the problem is in socialization of education.