1001 Ways To Tune Up The World, Number Five:

We all live in it... but only I'm fixing it, one day and one solution at a time.

5. Have each person assigned one phone number, and then add an extension for the various phones and faxes that person might be reached at.


Every day, it seems, we run out of phone numbers and have to add area codes or break up area codes or otherwise go through numerical gymnastics, all for nothing.

It can't be too difficult to simply assign a phone number to each person in the world. There are, as of right now, 6,776,773,194 people in the world. (According to this.) All we have to do is assign each a number (and assign a phone number to each newborn baby), and that number is their phone number and the person can designate a phone that number goes to. Add a cell phone, and no new number is generated -- instead, we simply tack on an extra digit at the end.

So if my number is 367-6392, and I get a cell phone, then my cell number is 367-6392-1. Add a home phone, and that's 367-6392-2.

That way, once you know someone's number, you can reach them wherever they are and on whatever they want to be reached.

Businesses could be assigned a number, too. And before you say that's impossible, there's no way to keep track of that or assign them or avoid duplication, think about this:

We already do just this with internet addresses.

Prior entries:

4. Abolish Mondays and Tuesdays.
3. Don't listen to interviews with athletes or comedians.
2. Have "personal cashiers" at the grocery store.
1. Don't earn more than $200,000 per year.