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>This is not an issue where democracy does well Democracy let this happen but "free market" capitalism created the imperative to do it. Credit where credit's
by crdoconnor 11y ago
>This is not an issue where democracy does well
Democracy let this happen but "free market" capitalism created the imperative to do it.
Credit where credit's due.
- F2468 11y agoIf there was anything resembling free market capitalism, phone prices would not be $10/min...
- crdoconnor 11y agoWell, in DC policy circles, the presumed arbiter of what constitutes "free markets" or "economic freedom": http://www.heritage.org/index/ranking http://www.heritage.org/index/ranking Is very much in favor of private prisons (and, consequently, $10/min phone calls): http://www.heritage.org/research/reports/1988/05/bg650-a-guide-to-prison-privatization http://www.heritage.org/research/reports/1988/05/bg650-a-gui...
- whatok 11y agoI wonder if their view has changed over the almost 30 years since that research report was published.
- crdoconnor 11y agoIf anything they seem to have gotten more rabid: http://www.heritage.org/research/commentary/2000/10/the-lefts-prison-complex-the-case-against-the-case-against-jail http://www.heritage.org/research/commentary/2000/10/the-left...
- whatok 11y agoI wonder if their viewpoint has changed since the more than decade and a half since that article was published. Is it that hard to find something current if it's so fundamental to your argument?
- wutbrodo 11y ago> the presumed arbiter of what constitutes "free markets" or "economic freedom" This assumption is ludicrous. I can't even imagine the thought process that would lead you to think that that makes any sense. Being the loudest proponent of your vision of a concept doesn't make you a good arbiter of what constitutes it: in fact it makes you a terrible one. Not that I have as low an opinion of Heritage as I do of them, but do you think the Westboro Baptist Church is the "presumed arbiter" of what constitutes Christianity, simply because they shout the loudest about God?
- crdoconnor 11y agoWestboro are not taken seriously in DC policy circles. Heritage are taken very seriously.
- taurath 11y agoA prison is not a free market, its by definition a place administered and controlled by an entity in order to restrict the liberties of those imprisoned there.
- antisthenes 11y agoYou're confusing free market capitalism with "perfectly competitive market". Nowhere in the study of economics does it say that free market capitalism necessarily leads to all industries having multiple competing companies that drive prices down. On a somewhat unrelated note, if history and human nature is any indicator, then we know that with an under-regulated market most industries will gravitate towards oligopolies with homogeneous product offerings, monopolies or cartels (colluding oligopolies)
- orangecat 11y agoThis has very little to do with capitalism or private prisons. As the description of the kickbacks ("commissions") explains, the government is specifically making the decision to abuse prisoners and their families, and then contracting out the implementation to a third party.
- wfo 11y agoOr rather passing along all responsibilities to the private sector, and when something bad happens, throwing up their hands and saying "sorry, doing the right thing just isn't economically feasible, we all have to make cuts, that's just the free market".