Oh, I forgot to add:
<<I do agree that the USA has managed to keep the lid on, so to speak, for quite a while. This has been accomplished by having, among other things, the world's largest prison population, percentage-wise, by far. I suppose you can claim a "victory by suppression".>>
Up until the Clinton Administration, the US did not have the worlds largest prison population. If you examine the statistics, you will see that violent crime has gone down in the US over the past several years while jails continue to fill up at a record rate. Why is this? Can you say "mandatory sentencing guidelines?" If our government didnt have such a hard on to put away kids whose only crime was possessing a couple grams of pot or two or three hits of acid, the jails wouldnt be filling so fast. Ten years for two hits of acid? Come on.
Disclaimer: Derek is a libertarian ;) |
