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I also think we need to be much tougher on white collar crime. There needs to be far more custodial sentences, and not merely fines. People need to go to prison

I also think we need to be much tougher on white collar crime. There needs to be far more custodial sentences, and not merely fines. People need to go to prison. White collar crime is such a parasitic attack on the complexity of the modern economy that I think it should be dealt with more harshly than petty street crime. Sentences need to be risk adjusted take into account the low probability of getting caught, not just for the specific crime being convicted. Here's an idea: what if we had undercover police units actively setting up shell companies to try and bribe politicians, and convict them for life if they are susceptible. It's something I wouldn't be unsupportive of, but it would be very hard to get politicians to vote for.

chrisbennet 9y ago
In th US, "bribing" politicians is actually legal. Large campaign donations are not illegal and occording to Citizens vs United, are protected free speech. As far a white collar crime goes, if you are talking about banking when mention a "parasitic attack on the complexity of the modern economy", I think that bank lobbying has made things that you would hope people would go to jail for, legal or unenforceable. Thankfully our President is going to "drain the swamp"... /s
- Houshalter 9y ago
  That's not true at all. You certainly cant bribe politicians by giving them money directly. You cant even donate it to their campaign like you say. All you can do is donate to an organization they aren't affiliated with or agree to run ads on their behalf. That's not great, but its a lot different than normal corruption.
  - chrisbennet 9y ago
    What I meant by "bribe" (notice the quotes), was that it isn't illegal to buy influence.