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I don’t understand why Americans are so eager to punish and jail people given that it objectively doesn’t fix the problems people think it will fix. My conclusi
by mbrodersen 6y ago
I don’t understand why Americans are so eager to punish and jail people given that it objectively doesn’t fix the problems people think it will fix. My conclusion (having lived, worked and paid taxes in many countries, including the US) is that there is an undercurrent of cruelty in US culture less prevalent in (say) Australia or the UK for example. It is the only explanation I have been able to come up with that matches my experiences having lived, worked and paid taxes in Europe, US and Australia.
- Aunche 6y agoI'm not "eager to punish people." Even for a junkie, it's not that hard for them to find a public restroom to shoot up and dispose their needles (at least pre-covid). They will almost certainly choose that if it means they won't get sent to jail. Right now, in LA and SF, certain areas are littered with needles and feces. I'm not blaming the homeless. I'm blaming the woke tech liberals who get offended no matter what how the police interact with the homeless. I seriously doubt that that anyone is allowed to casually shoot up in highly trafficked streets in Sydney or Berlin.
- mbrodersen 6y agoIt apparently cost between $30k and $60k to house a single prisoner in the US. So you have a choice: you can spend those $30k to $60k putting a homeless person in prison (not solving the problem), or spend the same money fixing the actual problem (treating it for what it is: a mental/health issue) or perhaps spend the money cleaning up the streets and provide places for people to use drugs safely. America so far has always chosen the least effective, most cruel way to pretend to solve the problem.