Welcome back, dude. Re your article, I'd say as a nation state, the US is spending too much on "defence". As the world's hegemonic power, though, I'd say yeah, it probably spends too little on its hegemonic aims.
You guys in the US really do know how to spend your dollars inefficiently.
In my country, it's the exact opposite. The better performance figures are in the public schools & universities, not in the private ones.
When are you going to write a post about rent seeking?
Rent seeking is an awesome idea. I'll work on that after the one I'm currently working on (Homosexuality and Judaic Law, How Christians Misread the Bible, etc.) I disagree with better performance being in public schools and universities. Western European experience has been quite the opposite. Maybe in your nation public education operates more efficiently and competitively, but that's unique in the world. I'll have to research your nation's educational system to so what you do differently... but in most of the world, experience has been that educational choice and competition yields better results per dollar that's expended.
I disagree with better performance being in public schools and universities.
I was referring strictly to Romania. The demand to enter public Unis is a lot higher than for private ones. The latter ones are perceived to be diploma manufacturing plants, in which bribes are frequently given.
Do you have twitter?
3 strikes & you're out
Seriously, the US has the highest incarceration rate of any country in the world. Higher than China, which has more than 1bil people and the government is totalitarian. In my opinion, short & tough sentences are the correct choice + actual rehabilitation programs + a Government job waiting for you after you've served your sentence. Otherwise, if you maintain prisons for profit & the NAIRU is state policy (in terms of fiscal & monetary policy), then you can't fix shit. Crime & repeat offenders ensures profits & jobs. So nobody will be interested to lower or eliminate the former.
As for drugs, make the shit legal.
I disagree with better performance being in public schools and universities.
I was referring strictly to Romania. The demand to enter public Unis is a lot higher than for private ones. The latter ones are perceived to be diploma manufacturing plants, in which bribes are frequently given.
Do you have twitter?
3 strikes & you're out
Seriously, the US has the highest incarceration rate of any country in the world. Higher than China, which has more than 1bil people and the government is totalitarian. In my opinion, short & tough sentences are the correct choice + actual rehabilitation programs + a Government job waiting for you after you've served your sentence. Otherwise, if you maintain prisons for profit & the NAIRU is state policy (in terms of fiscal & monetary policy), then you can't fix shit. Crime & repeat offenders ensures profits & jobs. So nobody will be interested to lower or eliminate the former.
As for drugs, make the shit legal.
Prisons are too comfortable. Prisoners are paid and provided luxuries. Some prisoners purposefully commit crimes, because they would rather live in the prison "society".
Prisons are too comfortable. Prisoners are paid and provided luxuries. Some prisoners purposefully commit crimes, because they would rather live in the prison "society".
There isn't much difference in quality within prisons in the U.S when compared to those in other parts of the developed world (Canada, Europe and Oceania). Also whatever "subsidies" given to prisoners are accrued from whatever menial work they do within the penal system (e.g. manual-labour), most of which goes to them purchasing said luxuries (tobacco, radios, TV etc) for personal use. This is not particularly different from other prisons around the globe but it is a common form of fiscally self-sustainable rehabilitation amongst prison systems in the developed world.
On the contrary, the problem in U.S. mostly lies in its justice system as it is quite skewed against not so much certain social groups but rather at certain categories of crimes (notably drug-use) which are both prosecuted more intensely and come with more highly severe sentences when compared to other countries. For example when highlighting the use of cocaine, users of crack cocaine seem to be disproportionately represented in the prison system versus those who use coke; even though there is no tangible difference between the two classes of narcotics and the fact that coke is the more widely used of the narcotic.
So if say the U.S. were to reduce certain penalties for drug-use to rehabilitation coinciding with some form of community service rather than a prison sentence, its prison population would in effect reduce dramatically.
