Demanding, aren't you? This isn't about being cynical or edgy. The basics of what I've laid out are simply the reality we live in and I believe most would agree. You want me to explain how? I could give popular ideas that most of us would agree with, but I'm one person, and how will never be good enough until it were actually accomplished. I can tell you what I'm certain needs to be done for a good start though.
Globally-
I'm not a well-paid senator, miracle worker or clairvoyant guru with the key to solving globalized competition and careerist politics at home, but if I were, I'd start by mobilizing educated voters en masse. Helping voter movements to petition their governments to get us off of UAE and Saudi Royal family cartel oil as quickly as is financially feasible is thinking ahead. If love of money truly is the root of all evil, it has shown itself to be even more so time and time again in the 21st century. So with solar/battery storage becoming cheaper and more efficient by the month, the transition needs to hurry up already, because we're running out of excuses. I know the US gov. is currently trying to pledge billions into the solar power industry as it is. It goes without saying one something so precious and economy-driving as energy gets sorted out by cleaner renewable, we won't be biting the bullet so hard to keep consumer-driven economies moving at a growing pace. We'd also be putting at least a ding in continuing greenhouse gas buildup that threatens to destroy coastlines and contributes to escalating conflict worldwide. We not only need to be energy-independent from these types of countries, but we need to stick it to them at every turn on the human rights front. And that means voting citizens putting immense pressure on US diplomats and even the UN chief to not give into them- Saudi Arabia belongs on the child killer list, a list of people blacklisted from the human rights list, and a trove of other lists to put more than just a polite slap on their wrists. The attitude needs to change toward these type of ass-backwards places as soon as we feasibly can.
Locally- Citizens United: a soapbox worth standing on, it needs to die a quick death, and it goes without saying why unlimited cash should NOT = unlimited "speech" when it sways elections. We'll likely see that in our lifetimes if something doesn't go horribly wrong.
Education-
Next, as millennials have seen in our lifetimes already, a well-funded start in public education (and not just a needlessly expensive one) goes a long way to seed basic critical thinking skills that will reappear later in life as the next generation is tossed into the world and expected to treat it with some respect. There's more than one reason young Americans keep getting more and more civic-minded as time passes. Even if they don't yet vote like it. In places like TX, their own state education financing system was found to be unconstitutional by one of their own District Judges the other year when it came to unfettered inequality between school district funding. http://www.cbsnews.com/news/texas-school-funding-still-unconstitutional/ This trend goes on and on in impoverished school districts nationwide. Most state govt's aren't helping fix this well enough, and simply put, the South needs to be brought up to speed on a lot of the things that give children a fighting chance for being self-sufficient in adulthood. If common core to pell grants won't save us, something more workable like it needs to. R

People at home need to stop getting complacent with religious extremists hiding under the cloak of dominionist Christianity, who have the loudest megaphone for pushing against valuable social progress of any type. We constantly pet their victim complex here. I say this as a self-proclaimed Christian. My faith is important but my religious beliefs have exactly zero place in modern government other than to ensure the 1st amendment keeps my worship protected. Loudmouth zealots need to be put in check every. single. election cycle. That includes down-ballot congressional elections during general election season and very crucial midterm elections where in places like TN, bat-shit ballot initiatives like prop 1 ensure that for the foreseeable future, none of my nieces get to grow up in a world where life-saving medical procedures aren't guaranteed to be protected under the state constitution. It's putting swiss cheese holes into their bodily autonomy and in the long run contributes to an embattled new generation of endless young mothers raising poor and at risk children, who statistically are more likely to grow up to be involved in gang activity or lead sad, dysfunctional lives which often require govt. assistance.

Once children make it through their first years with enough to eat and something healthy to spend their time doing, high schools need to start placing great emphasis on the basics of personal finance, healthy living, and civics. Children need to be far more engaged with how to practice being a productive member of society. I saw very little of this growing up. They need to see at the earliest age possible how the fruit of their contribution to society helps everyone and not just for them to "survive out there." I'd like to see a lot more required community service and school credit activities that get kids directly involved with a locally transparent government.
Once college starts, if we can overturn an obstinate congress, we need enough people to force their senators to help ease this burgeoning student loan bubble which threatens to burst in a couple decades and is only superseded by the mortgage bubble in terms of crushing life-long wealth potential. Specifically, this means using a top-marginal tax increase among other things to shave a sliver off top earnings to make public college free. If that's somehow too "extreme", then first world countries need to think of their students' futures by at least implementing refinancing programs that cut these ridiculous interest rates by half or more. They're the ones paying tens of thousands of dollars to big lenders just to be competitive in an unforgiving job market. College needs to reap returns in the form of good paying jobs and a large talent source that can actually help save a country's infrastructure in the long run.

Exactly none of these are Earth-shattering revelations that I thought up entirely on my own, but governments everywhere know that they work- there's just too much polarizing "fuck you, got mine" politics polarizing it away, a cable news-driven culture that breeds self-interest before we even learn to walk and yes, a bureaucratic nightmare of antiquated laws that slow down scientific and societal progress, which need to be cleaned up. The rest of it is simply convincing people that change isn't bad when new tech and better laws like those mentioned above are the bare minimum of sustainably supporting 7 billion people (and growing) in the long run.

tl;dr- grassroots voter engagement to curb regressive wack-job laws, more efficient and civic education, and countries working globally to put diplomatic pressure on the abusers and polluters.