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More questions. Why do we have more people locked away than any other industrialized nation, serving infinitely longer sentences? (And I have read that the condition in some of our prisons is worse than in many poor countries).
No, we don't ask that why. We are proud of being tough on crime: "three strikes and you're out." Once a sex offender, always a "predator." We guarantee that sex offenders forfeit a more or less normal life: after serving a stiff sentence they are watched and avoided forever after. Felons who have served their time are virtually unemployable. Is it any wonder that recidivism is so high?
We're also the only country that has the death sentence -- and the only country that has large numbers of people violently "pro life."
Prison sets an example, people say. It's a deterrent so that other men won't choose a life of crime. Do we really believe that people "choose" a life of crime? Do severe prison sentences work? Does locking a 16-year old away for "life without the possibility of parole" serve any purpose other than revenge? An eye for an eye, and we are both blind.
A large percentage of prisoners is locked away for what we quaintly call "victimless crimes," meaning these people didn't hurt anyone but themselves (perhaps). Are we protecting society by locking them away? Has the number of "drug" users changed in thirty years of a War on Drugs? All the statistics show that the number of users has not changed much--the drugs change: more potent and more vicious. And, of course, our war on drugs has created a multi-billion dollar underground economy.
Locking someone away costs the government, say, $50,000 a year. Couldn't we do a lot more good for society as a whole spending it on rehabilitation, re-education, something more positive?
But very few of us question.
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Another why.
I remember a time when calling a bank and getting a person. Now I get an electronic menu. English, press one. I must listen for ten minutes to all the different options I have, and usually none of them quite fit my question. Until by chance I hit the button that gets me to another electronic voice that tells me that a "communication expert" will talk to me when it is my turn. Sometimes it will even tell me that there are... seven people are ahead of me, or that... wait time is 11 minutes. It is all endlessly time consuming. I suspect that there is only one person on duty behind the thick layers of electronic choices. The worst are answering machines that do voice recognition. "I hear you say four, if that correct? If it is correct, click 1." That takes half an hour to dictate the various numbers they require me to tell them. Address, order number, shipping number, part number, etc. Occasionally someone actually calls back when I am not home. Usually they send me a printout of the FAQs on their web site.
It may be cheaper than having to pay real people, but it is not service.
Cheaper used to mean that the price was less; nowadays cheaper means that the profit margin is greater. That is what capitalism is about, isn't it? Our globalized world is organized to make things easier and cheaper for corporations so that their profits will balloon.
But--I hesitate to even mention this--shouldn't the world be organized to make things better for people? Aren't we... important? Even, yes, let's say it, aren't we more important than profit? Evidently not.
Trade is fine, it is a human thing to do. But can we forget what trade was for, originally? I have an extra bit of cloth that my daughter has woven; you have an extra pound of butter you have churned. Hey, how about a trade?
But life is not simple any more. It is not about trade, it is about money!
