Camden and the main debate

ONE
Imagine a little fish...swimming in the Atlantic waters off the New Jersey coast. He happens to be a Portuguese Trout, but his parents emigrated to New Jersey before he was even born. All his life, he has always wanted to visit the "Old Country". 

Fortunately, Portugal is exactly due East of New Jersey...straight shot. He knows it's gonna take a long time, but he begins his journey eastwards. He is a good fish and a good swimmer and he has a good goal.

But there is a current...from south to north. It is inexorable. Unlike the little trout, it never sleeps, never varies. The current is slow...in fact, it is a bit slower than the fish swims...but the real hell of it is, the current is vast. It is hundreds of miles wide. The fish cannot see it or feel it. He cannot use his "free will" to swim against it. It is his moving frame of reference...except...he doesn't know it is moving. He doesn't even know it exists.

After a very long time of swimming due East towards Portugal, he finally arrives in the waters off the coast of...Norway. The Norwegian fish eat him and that's the end of it.

TWO
I took a walk through the streets of Camden yesterday. I did it on Google Street View...because...I would be petrified to walk the streets of Camden in real life. I urge you to do the same...in Camden, or Detroit, Oakland, or Cleveland. There's only one way that I would not be afraid to walk the streets of Camden...if I was born there...if it were my undetectable frame of reference.

THREE
Obesity has exploded. There is no other way to say it. The increase is exponential. The American obesity rate has more than tripled since 1950. Why? Oh I don't know, maybe:

• The average restaurant meal is four times larger than it was in the 1950s. 
• Fast food is cheap and readily available. Vegetables are not.
• Sugar, salt, empty carbs...arranged in row after row in grocery stores. Processed foods take up the vast majority of space at the store and the advertising bandwidth on TV.
• Soda manufacturers are prominent at the most expensive of all advertising venues...the Super Bowl.

But all of these factors are oceanic currents. We are not fatter because we have suddenly and inexplicably lost our moral compass en masse.

THE MAIN DEBATE
The main debate between Republicans and Democrats is how much we should weigh the factors of individual responsibility versus social currents.

Pick any issue...like the banning of 64 ounce soda drinks in New York City...the Democrats will always support a ban or a tax...and the Republicans will always oppose...appealing to LIBERTY and RESPONSIBILITY.


Isn't it funny how these moral notions always seem to dovetail so well with...PROFIT?