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I don't really care to judge where the line belongs, but if we were to draw the line to include just one country, it would be North Korea as far as my moral com

I don't really care to judge where the line belongs, but if we were to draw the line to include just one country, it would be North Korea as far as my moral compass is concerned. If we drew the line so it included the US, then we would also be including Russia, China, Mexico, and the vast majority of world nations. So yes, lets not go ranking countries by evilness - but North Korea is so beyond that that your equivocating is offensive.

CWuestefeld 16y ago
If we drew the line so it included the US, then we would also be including Russia, China, Mexico, and the vast majority of world nations. It's not nearly so simple. If we drew the line according to what portion of our population we imprison, then the USA would be standing shoulder-to-shoulder with North Korea, with the rest of the world nearly an order of magnitude lower. Consider https://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/23/world/americas/23iht-23prison.12253738.html https://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/23/world/americas/23iht-23pr... The United States has, for instance, 2.3 million criminals behind bars, more than any other nation, ... China, which is four times more populous than the United States, is a distant second, with 1.6 million people in prison. ... The United States comes in first, too, ... in order of the incarceration rates. It has 751 people in prison or jail for every 100,000 in population. (If you count only adults, one in 100 Americans is locked up.) The only other major industrialized nation that even comes close is Russia, with 627 prisoners for every 100,000 people. The others have much lower rates. England's rate is 151; Germany's is 88; and Japan's is 63. The median among all nations is about 125, roughly a sixth of the American rate.
- jhamburger 16y ago
  The problem is that a lot of those people belong in prison. I mean release the pot dealer serving 25-to-life, fine...but you'll still be left with a lot of 'real' criminals out there. And sure there are a lot of unique systemic failures in America that led to this situation, but they can't all be fixed by a few shifts in gov't policy.
  - sedachv 16y ago
    "The problem is that a lot of those people belong in prison." Why do you think the situation is different in North Korea?
    - Wickk 16y ago
      You have got to be kidding me.
      - nandemo 16y ago
        Well, for me sedachv's comment sums up all the "but in the US..." comments in this thread. It's just bizarre.
      - pessimizer 16y ago
        Don't people commit crime in North Korea? Or is it just a nation of activists and saints?
- lukeschlather 16y ago
  >It's not nearly so simple. If we drew the line according to what portion of our population we imprison Yes, it's not simple. A single metric will not draw a meaningful line. Compared to the average person in North Korea (imprisoned or not) American prisoners are very well treated. They have balanced diets, and can read anything they please. Even if everyone in America was imprisoned, I think America would still come out as a more humane dictatorship than North Korea if half of what I've read about that country is true.

CWuestefeld 16y ago

If we drew the line so it included the US, then we would also be including Russia, China, Mexico, and the vast majority of world nations. It's not nearly so simple. If we drew the line according to what portion of our population we imprison, then the USA would be standing shoulder-to-shoulder with North Korea, with the rest of the world nearly an order of magnitude lower. Consider https://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/23/world/americas/23iht-23prison.12253738.html https://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/23/world/americas/23iht-23pr... The United States has, for instance, 2.3 million criminals behind bars, more than any other nation, ... China, which is four times more populous than the United States, is a distant second, with 1.6 million people in prison. ... The United States comes in first, too, ... in order of the incarceration rates. It has 751 people in prison or jail for every 100,000 in population. (If you count only adults, one in 100 Americans is locked up.) The only other major industrialized nation that even comes close is Russia, with 627 prisoners for every 100,000 people. The others have much lower rates. England's rate is 151; Germany's is 88; and Japan's is 63. The median among all nations is about 125, roughly a sixth of the American rate.

jhamburger 16y ago
The problem is that a lot of those people belong in prison. I mean release the pot dealer serving 25-to-life, fine...but you'll still be left with a lot of 'real' criminals out there. And sure there are a lot of unique systemic failures in America that led to this situation, but they can't all be fixed by a few shifts in gov't policy.
- sedachv 16y ago
  "The problem is that a lot of those people belong in prison." Why do you think the situation is different in North Korea?
  - Wickk 16y ago
    You have got to be kidding me.
    - nandemo 16y ago
      Well, for me sedachv's comment sums up all the "but in the US..." comments in this thread. It's just bizarre.
    - pessimizer 16y ago
      Don't people commit crime in North Korea? Or is it just a nation of activists and saints?
lukeschlather 16y ago
>It's not nearly so simple. If we drew the line according to what portion of our population we imprison Yes, it's not simple. A single metric will not draw a meaningful line. Compared to the average person in North Korea (imprisoned or not) American prisoners are very well treated. They have balanced diets, and can read anything they please. Even if everyone in America was imprisoned, I think America would still come out as a more humane dictatorship than North Korea if half of what I've read about that country is true.