USA #1 in Prisoners

RE: [spiers] USA #1 in Prisoners

Melanie,

This is step one in the process of finding the product or service for you to get
involved with. You have stated your views here forcefully, then you asked a
question.

Implicit in your view, if I read you right, is criminals are criminals, and if
not drugs, then salt. Also implicit is international crime is bigger than
domestic. What if these were not true. The exercise is to take your own views,
and study the reverse. What happens?

In fact, read Kurlansky on salt and see that in fact, once every problem we have
with drugs, we had with salt. The choice of verboten items is entirely
arbitrary, and serves the libido dominandi inherent in people.

To answer your question, if everything were legal, what would happen, well, in
classical economics, then everything would become faster, cheaper, more
plentiful and better. The manpower to accomplish this would lead to full
employment.

But you did implicitly hit the nail on the head, the illegal follows the govt
ruling of illegality. Once the govt restricts something, the market is
distorted, and opportunities for larceny abound. If nnothing is illegal, then
it is hard to leverage a big score out of anything. One is obliged to settle
for being merely satisfied.

John



There is such competition in business, just not 'legal' trade. You competitors
just wind up dead instead of broke. Plenty of competition with the
international 'Black Market' : drugs, arms, flesh trades. Big risk, bigger
payoff. By comparison, if drugs were made legal, then the smaller business man
(aka, prisoner no. 999-99-9999 would probably get squeezed out and thus find
another 'underground' market to corner.

Then, be in the same situation, King Pin of an illegal trade. Infact, there's a
question: if everything were made 'legal', what would happen, econcomically?

-----Original Message-----
From: spiers@yahoogroups.com [mailto:spiers@yahoogroups.com]On Behalf Of
John Spiers
Sent: Tuesday, May 23, 2006 12:32 PM
To: spiers@yahoogroups.com
Subject: RE: [spiers] USA #1 in Prisoners


Melanie,

Well, the issue is, in the measure we incarcerate blacks on pretentious grounds,
or Martha
Stewart for that matter, we lose the good of their competitive efforts. Of
course there are
larger moral and legal issues here too, but for the purposes of studying small
biz int'l trade, I
only point out the small issue of what we lose through bad policy. (And
sometimes a smaller
point makes a bigger impact).

As to your idea of scaring prisoners with an exchange program, well, we already
do that.
Although the 14th Amendment requires anyone under US jurisdiction to be afforded
all
constitutional rights, we do indeed send prisoners overseas for torture, which I
assume is
worse than anything they'd experience here. Janis Karpinski, the general in
charge of Abu
Ghraib has stated the reason the Army changed the name of Baghdad Central
Confinement
Facility back to Abu Ghraib was specifically to terrorize people. Perhaps
violence begets
violence, since it does not seem to be working.

But your point as to privatizing prisons, I like it. Prisons were once private
in USA, indeed,
the word "penitentiary" came from when the Quakers ran the system and criminals
could
come repent of their sins. There is a Bob Jones University, how about a Bob
Jones Prison? Pat
Roberts 700 Jail? Brother Jimmy Swaggart's ... well... you get the idea. Talk
about scary!

As to getting govt out of the penal business, here is a paper...

www.mises.org/journals/jls/1_2/1_2_7.pdf

I bet the Salvation Army would run excellent prisons.

John

On Tue, 23 May 2006 08:57:42 -0500, "Hamons, Melanie" wrote :

> Our prisons are country clubs compared to other prisons around the world. I
think if we
had a prison exchange program, alot of bitching by prisoners would be quited to
a great
degree.
>
> It doesn't break my heart to see people live a better life in jail then those
people they
calously hurt when they were free. I think prisons should go private. See how
many fewer
repeat offenders their are when prison actually SUCKS!
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: spiers@yahoogroups.com [mailto:spiers@yahoogroups.com]On Behalf Of
> Chris
> Sent: Tuesday, May 23, 2006 12:38 AM
> To: spiers@yahoogroups.com
> Subject: RE: [spiers] USA #1 in Prisoners
>
>
>
> Prisons are big industry - towns beg to have a prison built near them because
of the jobs
and money they bring in. they are also sources of very cheap labor, and to
punish a prisoner
he/she can even have what wages they did manage to earn fined away I have heard.
Not only
does big business avail themselves of this windfall but plain citizens can hire
cheap day labor
from the prisons. Breaks my heart what we are doing to our people, to our
country.
> chris
>
> --- On Mon 05/22, John Spiers < john@johnspiers.com > wrote:
> From: John Spiers [mailto: john@johnspiers.com]
> To: spiers@yahoogroups.com
> Date: 22 May 2006 15:03:43 -0000
> Subject: [spiers] USA #1 in Prisoners
>
>
>
>
> Folks,
>
> USA is # 1 in everything, and USA is # 1 in the world for incarcerating its
citizens, with
blacks
> jailed at a rate 700% higher than whites, and minorities make up 60% of our
prison
> population. Nearly one in twenty black men are behind bars, (not to mention
blacks on
> parole, awaiting trial, or burdened by conviction after time served),
according to US Justice
> Department figures.
>
> http://tinyurl.com/nnn5s
>
> I am assured blacks have a higher rate of conviction because they commit more
crimes. I
> think the explanation is simpler. But what bothers me is what with blacks
proving such
> excellent competitors in sports and entertainment, I regret so few are
competing in
business.
> Of course, being a convict is a serious disadvantage to competing in business.
And thus
> convicted, we are denied the good of blacks' competitive efforts in business.
>
> Drugs are the #1 violation leading to prison in USA, and I've already pointed
out my view
that
> this is merely war on pain relief.
>
> A free market in medicine is the solution to "drug abuse" but that is
unlikely. But the more
> people self-employed, the more likely a free market will occur. Of course,
government
would
> find another war to fight, as once in England the govt made war on glass
windows. I am
not
> making this up.
>
> John
>
>
>
>
>
>
> Compete on Design!
>
> www.johnspiers.com
>

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