In my last post, I just pasted some data on the federal budget. My point was that the numbers speak for themselves – mostly the 54% part. To say that the priorities of the US government are out of whack would be to oversimplify the situation. I don’t think any one person is to blame. I think the problem is systemic. It is part of the economic and political structure of our representative democracy.
If you think of dollars as votes and what people really care about, then we are getting what we want. Our representatives are doing their best to get money into the districts of their voters. If you want better education, then you ask them for more money. If you want better health care, then you ask them for more money. If you want more jobs and a larger corporate tax base, then you ask them for more money. Each district is sucking hard through the straw of their representative for more money. With all this sucking the biggest straws get the most juice.
What are the biggest straws? The ones that seem most reasonable, responsible, and sensible – jobs. Everywhere across America, cities are vying with one another for big businesses to set up shop in their tax regions. Our congressional representatives are doing the same – trying to get money for industries in their home towns. They are especially keen for companies and industries that are going to provide a lot of jobs.
Unfortunately, it seems that the more a straw is used, the easier the flow becomes. From another perspective, this is the same as saying that the rich get richer. The rich do get richer. That is a fact. People who have money have the power to make more money. And the way they make more money is to invest it in people and companies and industries that are going to make them more money. They set up an infrastructure for make more money, and they make their straws bigger.
The fundamental, common interest of the people of America is money. It is a nation ruled by money. It is ruled by money in the same way that the rest of the world is ruled by money. The sad consequence of this fact is that if you do not have money, then you have no rule. You have no vote. No representation. Taxation without representation is a natural consequence of the capitalistic economic system.
Since long before I was born, people complained about the futility of voting. One vote is insignificant when the total number of votes are in the millions. The truth is: it is insignificant. Especially when you are simply voting for a representative that is simply a pawn for a system of governance and economics which is systemically flawed. If you want a voice, then you must do so with money.
I am not saying anything new here. I am simply pointing out the obvious. Everyone knows, or should know, about this problem. But sometimes we blind ourselves to realities when those realities are incongruent with what we are comfortable with.
If you put a frog in boiling water, it will hop out. If you put a frog in cool water and then slowly turn up the temperature, then the frog will remain there until it boils to death. This is universally analogous to almost all problems we face in which we have no perceived control. Not because we are unable to detect the threat, but because we refuse to detect it.
What is the point? What can we do? Why get angry and learn about the issues when our opinions have zero impact? Why get angry about the weather, or poverty, or a war on the other side of the world?
In the case of the over use of our tax dollars on military spending, what can I do? Assuming I have a clear understanding of the real consequences or negative effects of this use of money, and I feel strongly that something should be done, then I should donate to lobbying groups such as http://www.sensiblepriorities.org/, http://www.fpif.org/, or http://www.ips-dc.org/ .
But what about other issues? Who can afford to donate significant amounts to several groups? People with money can, and people with money do, donate to multiply lobbying groups. We are back to where we started.
At this point, I can choose between two or three conclusions:
1) We are trapped in a system in which we have no control
2) This analysis is somehow flawed
3) The problem, like the temperature of the frogs’ bath, is not really that bad
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