If a man decides he needs to be healthier and adds a little exercise to his daily routine, there will be a difference. Now he will do twenty sit-ups every single morning after breakfast. Assuming he hasn’t exercised before, this will be a big difference to him.
This man weighs 375 lbs (170 kg) and still consumes over 8000 calories a day in his excessive high-fat, high-starch, high-sugar diet. Guess what?
His twenty sit-ups aren’t going to do a damn thing. It is really a difference that makes no difference. In fact, he may actually be doing himself harm. The twenty sit-ups might stress his balking, grossly overworked heart and kill him.
This is what is going on with politics in America now. There are differences being debated and some laws in place which are “different”. Liberals are extolling them as revolutionary new innovations which will put the country back on track towards recovering the vision of an egalitarian society with opportunities and fair share for all. Conservatives are damning them as treasonous abdication of true America to some horrifying socialist model.
Neither is true.
Most of the legislation passed in the past two years __ an impressively long list of left and liberal leaning items __ will make no difference whatsoever to the long term prospects of America’s rapprochement with its fundamental ideals or its prospects for survival.
Differences that make no difference.
It’s a simple concept and an effective way of calling out and eliminating distractions and falsifications: Those actions and ideas that on first glance appear to have merit but don’t really solve the problems. Laws and programs with big gloves but no punching power.
Health care reform: The problems are skyrocketing costs and the still rising 17% of GDP it carves out of the national budget, and the lack of truly universal coverage. The rising costs are not sustainable and will bankrupt the country. Moreover, since America is not a very healthy country, until every single person is given comprehensive preventative services as well as treatment for acute and chronic ailments, it will just get sicker. The solutions to this crisis are 1) offering a path to health care services which is not profit-driven, 2) truly universal coverage, and 3) establishing true competition in the marketplace to drive down costs. The health care bill just passed does none of the above. Health care will continue to be sub-standard and only get worse, and quality health care will soon only be a privilege of the rich. No matter how you slice it, Obama’s great historical claim to fame is a difference that makes no difference.
Economic reform: The United States of America has little or no control over its money. The Federal Reserve Bank is an autonomous privately-owned corporation. As long as the country itself does not have absolute authority and control over its currency and matters of monetary policy, it will never be able to effectively address economic issues or solve the daunting problems it currently confronts. The nation is over 13 trillion dollars in debt and counting. It will only get worse. The tinkering that is being done with bank regulations will create some hollow differences in policy but make no substantive difference in the outcome. The rich will get richer and the poor and middle class will get poorer. The country will with increasing rapidity flail and sink into the quicksand of insolvency.
Corporate control: As long as corporations have “personhood” under the law __ a highly questionable ruling by the Supreme Court back in 1886 __ legislation which attempts to trim the sails of corporations will be completely ineffective. The personhood privileges of corporations actually go far beyond what we as in-the-flesh humans have. We have rights and privileges but also culpabilities under the law. We can be imprisoned for our illegal actions. How do you incarcerate a corporation? Do you put the home offices in jail? The 17,262 stockholders? The receptionist at the front counter? It is laughable to see debates going on about trying to reign in corporations, keeping them from exporting jobs, from off-shoring profits, from avoiding taxes, and on and on. It won’t happen. Corporations have no real accountability. And they certainly have no conscience. Caring is not in their corporate by-laws, nor is it in their nature __ this by definition. Anything we do with the personhood legal sanctuary corporations currently have in place, will be a difference that makes no difference.
Corporate power: Corporations now own Congress. Maybe the White House. I posted a piece called “Is President Obama Under House Arrest?“ It could have been called “Who Really Owns The Highest Executive Office In America?” We have seen President Obama rubbing up against the legs of Wall Street and corporate America like a cat who wants to be fed. He has personally made his case before the U. S. Chamber of Commerce, as well as the movers-and-shakers on Wall Street. What a joke! Of course they nodded and smiled and offered him reassurances that they were on board. What were they going to do? Put a whooppie cushion on his seat and throw tomatoes at him? It was all a nice show. To his credit, President Obama as always was funny, articulate, charismatic, and charming. It was a love fest. But! Words are words. Deeds are deeds. The President, tragically and naively thinks he can nudge these people into doing the right thing with a nicely crafted appeal. But realistically the man has no levers to pull. Corporations can make unlimited contributions to political campaigns (see ‘personhood’ above), have outgrown any loyalty to the country (40,000 factories closed in America over the past decade), have managed to pull levers themselves which puts the country at enormous risk ($9 trillion bailouts and guarantees), and will continue to do whatever they have to do to make money. Tons of it. The President can do what he will to try to tweak consumer protection laws in order to reduce some abuses __ credit cards, home loans, whatever __ but here we have a classic case of differences which will make no difference. The Treasury has already been looted. And it was our money, yours and mine __ the 98% of America which is not disgustingly wealthy __ that was taken.
Can anybody spare some change?
[ This posting originated at the author's novelist website jdrachel.com:
Differences That Don’t Make A Difference ]
