Houston? We have a problem...

This is a very corny but excellent view of what it can be like trying to get over the barriers to innovation in any government agency, massive global corporation or any other job where the thinking has become too inside the box:

Astronaut’s video slams NASA attitudes
Film takes harsh look at tendencies that stifle innovation

"homemade film shot by a NASA astronaut takes a harsh look at the agency's sometimes impersonal bureaucracy in hopes of encouraging employees to keep a more open mind when confronted with dissenting opinions or new ideas.

Written and produced by four-time spaceflier Andrew Thomas, the 10-minute satirical video was posted to YouTube — with NASA's approval — after being screened at an agency leadership retreat last month. The film follows a young engineer who attempts to present an innovative idea for a spacecraft design only to be stymied at every turn by program managers."

"The point about the video is it's not fiction," Thomas told Space.com Monday. "All of those scenes are real. They've actually happened to people to various degrees."

People are so compartmentalized in their thinking that they are afraid to take a fresh look at new ideas that might actually be a better way to solve a problem.

A good example of that today would be the way the government and the media refuses to take a serious look at single payer health care. Even though, by every metric that we could possibly analyze, it is a far superior way to provide medical care to Americans... Politicians and the media refuse to even compare its very real advantages to the broken health care system we have.

"We can't rock the boat!"

"It isn't the American way of doing things!"

Ok... So, now, the American way is to shut your eyes to the real solutions out there while the economy tanks? Instead of building a better way of doing things so the entire economy has a chance to rebuild itself on solid footings?

Get out of that stupid box that is clouding your thinking and take a look around you.

Whether it is energy policy, health care reform or almost any way you thought the government should be doing things "the good old fashioned American way..."

It has got to change because America is seriously broken right now.

It is that old fashioned way of thinking that broke it. The way some want to keep going, we may as well be trying to patch up the Appolo 13 capsule and sending it to Mars. A new paint job, a sling shot and a lube job won't cut it. Not a hope nor a prayer in that.

Just like the little changes, patches and tweaks to energy, health care and other government programs and policies are not going to solve these HUGE problems. They will just prolong the agony and make the next generation's mess even bigger and costlier to fix.

Take a look at our bloated national debt...

The Outstanding Public Debt as of 11 Feb 2009 at 05:19:14 AM GMT is:

The estimated population of the United States is 305,625,144
so each citizen's share of this debt is $35,082.81.

Can we really afford to make these fixes even costlier for our future leaders and pioneers than they will already be?