Student Loans & Bankruptcies (was Re: creative financing)

Christopher Rhoades Dÿkema crdbronx at erols.com
Sat Apr 21 19:59:07 PDT 2001


Justin gets to take the common-sense rôle in this discussion, and I certainly agree. Probably I am the only one here to have actually worked in something like law enforcement, though not as a cop. I was a child protective worker for several years, and for many more years, and currently am a mandated reporter of child abuse and maltreatment under the New York State Family Court Act, Article Ten. Now and then, since I work in a medical facility, I have to be part of taking children into protective custody pending a determination by other agencies, mostly the Child Protective Services. This isn't simple. Yes, it is true that the weight of the FCA falls probably disproportionately on poor people, people of color, and so forth. Yet there is an argument that this means that people of greater means and privilege can get away with mistreating their children, who get less protection in practice. This is more true for some kinds of abuse than others. If you're a person with a light complexion and more money, for example, it is less likely that people will suspect you of molesting your child, even though that particular kind of abuse correlates only slightly with economic status.

It's too facile to see a direct relationship between oppression and subjection to the legal apparatus. The reality is quite complex.

Christopher Rhoades Dÿkema

Justin Schwartz wrote:


> Despite the rhetoric, probably most of us on the list have fairly
> conventional views about criome and punishment, although we'd be likely to
> agree with Yoshie that the list if bad guys ought to be a little wider than
> it's usually drawn. Carrol, despite his crankiness, is really very nice amd
> would have no truck with pedophiles, etc.; he just thinks--I think
> naively--that there wouldn't be any people like that under socialism, or not
> any who couldn't be dealt with by a stern talking to.
>
> I will comment three things about punishment: First, theoretically, it is
> not easy to justify having the state impose harm on people even when they do
> harm to others, although I think that a defense of punishment can be
> constructed. Second, there is no doubt that as a society we in America are
> insanely punitive by world standards: we have two million people in custody,
> up from a few hundred thousand a quarter century ago,a nd ona per capita
> basis we punish ina league with Iran and China rather than with France and
> Germany--which latter societiesa re not exactlly overrun with thugs and
> goons. Third,a s Yoshie says, despite this, we don't get the very worst and
> most deserving of punishment--the Kissingers and Jack Welches and the like.
> So Carrol has gone overboard, but in the right direction.
>
> --jks
>
> >
> >Yoshie Furuhashi wrote: >The majority of murderers & pedophiles go
> >regularly unpunished today. >E.g., those who price food, clean water,
> >medicines, & other >necessities out of the hands of the poor; those who
> >refuse to make >safety equipment & procedures available to workers &
> >consumers; those >who order wars & economic sanctions; those who kill with
> >governments' >approval; sex tourists who patronize young prostitutes in
> >poor >nations, etc.
> >
> >As a mother, I always worry about food, clothing and shelter for my
> >children, but I cannot protect them from abductors, rapists or other
> >predators who should be shot after their fair trial. Of all of these we've
> >named, do you count yourself as one? Like that horrid man Carol, do you
> >think they should be allowed to roam free and do as they wish with nothing
> >done by the police? I don't know if what you say is the truth or not, I
> >have no experience with sanctions or sex tourists, but if some nation is
> >deserving, shouldn't they receive sanctions?
> >
> >I must surely be in the wrong place, if murderers, rapists and pedophiles
> >are defended here. That is a Japanese name, isn't it? Yoshie? Do you have
> >children? What do the authorities in Japan do with murderers and rapists
> >and pedophiles? I just finished a book that described the soap houses in
> >Japan. Isn't that the same sort of prostitution? Is it alright if it isn't
> >in a poor nation, if the sex tourist can afford it? Have you ever worked in
> >any of them?
> >
> >Catherine
> >
> >--
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