Would the world of politics look different if we knew exactly what can't be changed?
The answer is yes. There are a number of things we know can't be changed. To start with there will always be below average students. Below average is an arithmetic truism. There will always be crime (even in the most socially stable society on earth: Japan). There will always be poverty (even in the richest society on earth: Norway).
While the public sector denies that there will always be below average students and creates community colleges and social demands that are tragic and mean-spirited to service this half of humanity, the private world has created a profitable and successful alternative in the form of for-profit technical schools. There are now over 700 post-secondary technical colleges in the U.S. and I made a handsome profit on several of the public stocks (Corinthian Colleges COCO, Strayer Education STRA and others.)
If we can accept the reality of the knowledge about what we can't change how would we respond?
Lets start with crime. We would get rid of the 3/4ths of every police force that is a waste of money, since the size of a police force has no correlation to the level of crime. We could take that money and use it for remedial aid. Every person who is a victim of a crime could be made whole...in so far as that is possible. Burglary, robbery and car theft are feasible in most cases. Murder, rape and battery are harder to remediate but victims could be paid for therapy, lost time and compensatory time off with travel.
Poverty will always be with
us but offspring of the poor are not bound by circumstances and should
be given extra special financial and educational support. The poor need
to be accepted in much the same way we give food stamps and Section 8
housing allowances without much recrimination. We need to expand these
programs so that rewards are largely in-kind, including medical care in
special clinics for the poor. But we don't have to try and live with
the poor (who lack social control), go to school with the poor and
share anything else including transportation with the poor.
We have learned, but fail to adapt to the reality that crime diminishes the more time criminals spend in prison. That poor people will stay away from everyone else if they are given a safe place to go and are left alone.
There are many more ways we can make the world a better place by rejecting Puritan "fixism" for the perpetrators and accepting remediation for the victims.