[lbo-talk] turn in your brother or go to jail!

joanna 123hop at comcast.net
Sat May 21 11:01:32 PDT 2005


Autoplectic wrote:-----------------------------


>"If the rapid expansion of the penal system in the 1980s and 1990s in
>the US is regarded as an intervention in the labour-market and the
>incarcerated are counted among the ranks of the unemployed, the US
>male jobless rate rises to a level above the European average for most
>of the period since 1975. It hardly needs to be pointed out that
>incarceration on a per capita basis is rather more expensive than
>unemployment benefit. More importantly, since the job prospects of
>ex-convicts are significantly eroded such that they invariably leave
>prison to join the ranks of the long-term unemployed, the impressive
>employment performance of the US in the 1980s and 1990s has in fact
>depended in large part on a high and increasing incarceration rate at
>an increasing cost to the US taxpayer. Arguably, then, the US has a
>very expensive non-welfare state."
><http://www.bham.ac.uk/POLSIS/department/staff/publications/hay_inaugural.htm>
>
This is absolutely true, but it leaves out two essential facts: 1. The money spent is going to jailers rather than the working class, further dividing the white collar from the blue collar and 2. It's perfectly OK to fleece the taxpayer in the cause of increasing general social terror -- fear of losing your job + fear of going to jail.

After all, the goal is control/power not social justice or efficiency.

Joanna


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