Yahoo News asked its readers this month: Which one big idea could help the country address our most pressing national problem?

Unless they want a two-thousand-page answer, I would offer dropping the question. To humor those at Yahoo News, I shall explain. Treating people like little tyrants who want to wave a magic wand and instantly get everybody right where they belong will not work. One cannot make one big fix (e.g., abolishing the IRS) without lots of bad side effects (e.g., a huge spike in demand for unemployment benefits). Over at “Downsizing the Federal Government,” scholars at the Cato Institute have compiled multiple pages of suggestions to improve the federal budget. These pages only skim the surface of one dimension of the country’s ills.

Still, I believe if we stopped treating each other like math-phobes on the verge of panic, some good minds could come up with a tough-love solution with minimal casualties in about eight days.