conditions that some people would see as social problems harm some segments of society but are beneficial to others consider air pollution on the one hand an automobile manufacturer might argue that government regulation of free enterprise is a social problem because laws requiring antipollution devices on cars do harm by raising costs decreasing gasoline mileage and stimulating inflation on the other hand residents of a city with heavy air pollution will argue that the government failure to outlaw noxious automobile emissions is a social problem because the smog created by automobile harms their health and well being one person social problem is another person solution clearly most people define social problems as conditions that harm or seem to their own interests