A word please?

Politically suicidal. Sorry thats two words.

Best. Flamebait. Evar.
Like you’d just post this sort of question and have us mindlessly plug in a word.
The solutions feel obvious, but if they were really obvious, they would have been done.
Perhaps the erroneous thrust you are going for is fundamental

How about you use entrenched instead?

Well, which kinds of problems are you attempting to describe?
– “Structural”, such as the built-in problems of our Constitution (all human endeavors being subject to failures of one degree or another)

- political?

- economic?

- geologic / geographic?

If we knew what problems you had in mind, we might come up with the right adjectives.

@drhat77 I wasn’t trying to flamebait. I wanted a more powerful word than fundamental.
@CWOTUS More Economic and Political problems.

insidious

Sure they are obvious, but they are also “socialist”, so they will never be implemented in the predatory capitalist paradise that is the Great Satan.

conspiratorial

Cosmetic.

Could you give some examples of the types of problems you are thinking of? Would you include racism, since racism is not only senseless but it is detrimental to society to the extent that it prevents people from reaching their potential for making the greatest possible contribution.

Inherent?

@LostInParadise That is true, and I may include that.
I was thinking of wealth disparity and inequality, as well as the basic rights of education, housing, and healthcare. Things that should be a given, but aren’t.

@Aesthetic_Mess, the word for a society that provides education, housing, and healthcare as basic rights (that therefore don’t cost the citizens anything—a right is a right and not a commodity) and exhibits no disparity of wealth is Utopia. Are you going to argue that what’s fundamentally wrong with the U.S. is that it isn’t a Utopia?

Are you picturing everybody living in block apartments as in the cities of North Korea, or does everyone get a mansion? Either way it’s going to be a bit tricky with no worker class.

A community or society that is the opposite of the ideal is sometimes (especially in fiction) called a dystopia.

@Jeruba… i hope you’re not arguing we’re a utopia.

@drhat77, is that what it sounds like to you?

@Jeruba I’m studying Utopia by Sir Thomas More, and it is kind of a comparison between the U.S. and what More wrote about.

Check out the synonyms and the related words sections at this link

Shoot for a little juxtaposition and try blindingly obvious.

Staggeringly, brainlessly, and baldly also work.

@Aesthetic_Mess, and do you honestly believe that everyone everywhere is born entitled to free education, housing, and healthcare and that human societies (through government) should control distribution of resources so that everyone has exactly the same amount? Just asking.

As an aside was reading Common Sense last night. I don’t think he would agree with your assessment. But his opinion and yours don’t have to be linked.

In the intro it said that his essay was reprinted 56 times in the first year of release. It is also still well regarded today. Most notable was his accessibility and simplistic but plain style of writing.

So what is wrong with the words basic or obvious? As to the nonissues tou could use the word nonissue or distraction or symptom.

@Jeruba now that I’ve retread it I get it. Sorry for the confusion

Mundane? (I barely skimmed your details, no time to think about it.)

As plain as the nose on your face.

self-evident truths, as Thomas Jefferson put it, though you are including more than life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness

Intrinsic?