In this article, we take a look at 15 biggest issues in America and the companies working on solving them. You can skip our detailed analysis of America’s issues and its market's unique position to address them and go directly to 5 Biggest Issues in America and the Companies Working on Solving Them.
America's place in the world affords it the luxury of insulation from many of the problems that plague the rest of the world. However, it has its problems as well. Some are uniquely its own while others are shared with the world.
On the bright side, the dynamic profit-driven free market tends to create solutions to these problems when there’s sufficient demand.
For instance, environmental concerns in the country have led to the emergence of the green economy, which, in addition to contributing $1.3 trillion to the overall economy, has created roughly 10 million jobs according to a Nature study.
By far, some of the most pressing problems in the US are financial and social. Rate hikes are making it harder for consumers as well as corporations to borrow money. It has resulted in rising cost of living across the states, with consumer prices up by 7.7% since October 2021.
On social fronts, there are many communities that are alienated and are still struggling for social equality and acknowledgement, with trans people being the most prominent group.
The social rejection and isolation resulting from the mainstream myth that sex determines gender has led to an alarming suicide rate in the trans community, with 82% contemplating suicide and a 40% actually attempting it, according to official numbers from the US government.
As far as market solutions go, many companies are tackling these problems actively and passively. The ones that are trying to solve them actively are addressing these problems through innovative solutions and creating a market for them. On the other hand, companies solving these passively are doing so through corporate institutionalization. All in all, prominent companies trying to solve many of America's issues include Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG), Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) and Tesla, Inc. (NASDAQ:TSLA).
Photo by Jon Tyson on Unsplash
Our Methodology
For the list of the 15 biggest issues in America and companies working on solving them, we’ve selected the oft-repeated problems that Americans are most concerned about as shown in numerous surveys conducted by Pew Research and Gallup Poll.
Here’s the 15 biggest issues in America and the companies working on solving them.
15. Housing
The housing crisis has led to many people ending up on the streets. End Homelessness, a nonprofit homelessness tracker, reported that nearly 0.6 million people in 2020 were homeless across all US states and the number has been on the rise since 2016, with California having the highest number of people without homes.
In terms of buying a house, the median house price was $370,000 in the US in 2021. In 2022, it has risen to $423,000. It has to do with Fed’s rate hikes which have led to 30-year-fixed mortgage interest rates doubling since last year.
Many companies have sensed the emerging market for affordable housing and are working to create solutions. Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN) has launched a $2 billion housing equity fund with the aim to develop affordable houses in Nashville, Arlington and Puget Sound.
Other big corporations like Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL), Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) and Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) are also on it, with Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) allocating $2.5 billion for affordable housing, $1 billion of which is for California.
Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG), on the other hand, has pledged $1 billion for the development of cheap residences, especially in the Bay Area. The company plans to repurpose $750 million worth of its land for residences.
14. Infrastructure
The issue of infrastructure has caught the attention of the congress as well as the oval office. The bipartisan infrastructure bill with a budget of $1.2 trillion was passed in congress in late 2021, which is aimed at repairing and rebuilding roads, bridges and freight rails among others over the next five years through government contracts.
In this regard, several top US construction companies are working to rebuild and are anticipated to work in rebuilding the American infrastructure. Some of the prominent companies include Caterpillar Inc. (NYSE:CAT) and Fluor Corporation (NYSE:FLR).
13. Healthcare
America is unique for an advanced economy when it comes to healthcare. Many healthcare products and services are unreasonably expensive due to monopoly and other unethical market practices.
White House’s official website revealed that almost 3 in 10 Americans who take prescription drugs have reported skipping doses and cutting pills in half for later use due to high drug cost. Many startups have emerged to tackle this problem. Notable companies include Blink Health, Hoy Health and GoodRx.
In addition, diagnostics and other medical tests are also out of reach for hundreds of thousands of Americans. In this respect, companies like Visibly are at the forefront, providing Americans with cheap medical tests using tele-health technology.
12. Wages
Wages are one of the biggest issues in the US. The data from Economic Policy Institute shows that while productivity has grown by 62.5% in the US during 1979-2021, wages in comparison have only grown by 16%. This linear growth in wages relative to exponential productivity growth can be explained in part by the fact that the percentage of unions has halved in the country in the past 40 years, as noted by the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
However, many corporations are tackling the problem by compensating their workers with higher-than-market-average wages. These include Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG), Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) and Salesforce, Inc. (NYSE:CRM).
11. Drugs
The US has a major drug problem, primarily due to its porous border with Mexico. The latter is dominated by cartels that smuggle drugs across the border due to high demand. One of the primary drugs that makes it to the US is Fentanyl, a potent synthetic opioid that is 50 times stronger than Heroin.
The number of deaths caused by Fentanyl and Fentanyl analogs increased by 56% from 2019 to 2020, according to CDC, with 90% opioid-related deaths being the result of Fentanyl overdose.
In this respect, Anduril Industries is one of the most prominent companies working on solving Southern-border issues with its high-tech surveillance systems.
10. Incarceration and State of Prisons
The United States has the highest incarceration rate in the world as of October 2021, according to World Prison Brief, with over 2 million people in prisons across the country. A whopping $80 billion is spent on correctional facilities every year, costing the taxpayer a significant amount of money.
Despite that, the majority of US prisons are overcrowded and understaffed. Additionally, many reports of sexual abuse and violence in prisons have been recorded by institutes like Equal Justice Initiative.
Several companies and startups are tackling the incarceration problem head-on. Some of these include Promise, EdTech and the non-profit Recidiviz. These companies are employing technology like Big Data and AI to help policymakers make the criminal justice outcomes better efficiently.
9. Environment
Environment is the most pressing global issue and is also of critical importance in the states. The recent Hurricane Ian that struck Florida was the deadliest category-4 hurricane since 1935, with experts like Kevin Reed believing it was exacerbated by global warming.
In addition, typical fire seasons, in states like California, used to last four months on average. Their mean duration has doubled due to climate change as of late. The 2020 wildfires lasted for the entire year in California and Oregon. Given the magnitude of the problem, several companies have emerged whose mission is to actively solve climate change. These include the electric car maker and clean energy company Tesla, Inc. (NASDAQ:TSLA) and First Solar, Inc. (NASDAQ:FSLR).
The US is also one of the biggest producers of plastic waste, with an output of 42 million metric tons every year that is taking a toll on air, land as well as oceans. However, companies like Truman’s, Stasher and Final Straw are creating reusable non-plastic products and passively trying to fight resource consumption and plastic waste.
8. Misinformation
The increasing trend of misinformation in the country is wreaking havoc on public trust and expertise. Its effects were best captured by a survey conducted by YouGov and The Economist, which showed that one in five Americans believed that Covid vaccines contained microchips.
Misinformation spreads fastest on social media and in this regard, social media companies like Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META) and Reddit have adapted their platforms to tackle the problem through fact-checking and suspensions.
7. Systemic Racism
Systemic Racism is among the biggest issues in America. The land of the free still has a long way to go to end racial inequalities. African Americans are the notable group bearing the most brunt for it due to the negative stereotypes associated with black culture.
According to a National Urban League report, Black households are twice as likely to be denied a mortgage loan. Black people also earn 37% less in average income relative to white households. In terms of education and healthcare access, people of color in general and black people in particular, lag fairly well behind white Americans.
Many corporations have become alert to the institutional racism and biases embedded in the American system and have pledged to fight it through equity and corporate institutionalization.
Many companies, especially tech corporations like Dell Technologies Inc. (NYSE:DELL), Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL), Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN), Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META) and Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG), have introduced diversity-hiring targets that are aimed for racial, ethnic and gender equity. Dell Technologies Inc. (NYSE:DELL), for instance, intends to have 25% of its workforce made up minority groups by 2030.
Some corporations are actively fighting systemic racism. One such company is Fifty Years, a seed investor firm that has recently created an open source framework called Racial Inequity Drawdown, for the purpose of eliminating systemic racial biases in startup investments and in broader corporate environment. The open source document presents a holistic picture of the state of systemic racism in the country and in particular, the corporate culture to help interested companies and seed investors eliminate unconscious racial biases.
6. Labor Shortage
Another issue of critical importance in the US is labor shortage. There’s about 10 million jobs in the US while only 6 million unemployed individuals, per the US Chamber of Commerce. Further, there's 3.4 fewer Americans in the workforce today than in early 2020.
There's several factors at play that have created the situation, like lack of access to childcare, savings and low wages. The market is responding to the shortage with the emergence of automation startups like Pickle Robot, Bear Flag Robotics and Chef Robotics.
