Punish the Weak

I saw an interesting statistic on Reddit today that showed just how many more prisons than colleges we have in the US. Here's my take in its most simplified form, along with other ways in which we beat down those who are already down.

The issue is that American bureaucrats, (most of) the super-wealthy, and fiscal conservatives aren't really fiscally conservative and unfortunately, they control everything. They sure as shit don't mind spending incredible amounts of money on prisons and punishment (or wars; they never seem to mind using our highly-expensive military to dispatch "freedom" all around the world), but don't want to spend money on rehabilitation or prevention in the form of higher education. This is what baffles me about both liberals and conservatives.

On one side, you have a liberal group that believes everyone deserves help, and that we need to do our part to help our fellow citizens. I tend to identify with this group more often than not, but only within reason. Obviously, there are those that do not want or deserve help and choose to be a pain in the collective American ass. These people deserve any misfortune and/or punishment exacted upon them. However, I do believe that some people make mistakes and/or come from a disadvantageous circumstance, and truly do want to better their own lives as well as contribute to society in a positive manner. These people deserve help, and we as a society are tasked with the responsibility of coming up with the best strategy, financially and otherwise, to extend that help.

On the other side, you have a group that says that people need to work hard to be successful, though many of these people did not, in fact, work hard to be successful. They are conservative because they are selfish; they don't want their resources to be used to help others only because they have never needed help. They just want to keep the poor people away from them and make sure that they don't have the same advantages as those with lots of money. It's almost like a perverted form of jealousy; we have this because we're rich, and if we help you get the same advantages that we have, then we're not special anymore. These people don't mind spending money on wars because they are war profiteers and don't have to send their own wealthy kids to fight in these wars. They lay that burden on the poor. Besides war, to say they are conservative is laughable; they spend shit-tons of money on their own agendas so long as they or the corporations that pay them are successful as a result. They get nothing from social programs, so fuck everyone else.

Back to this prison vs. college statistic. Prisons aren't deterring crime at all because they have become conveniences to criminals. The best way to fight crime is two-pronged:

1)  Offer people a chance to better themselves and rise above situations that would otherwise steer them towards a life of crime; one way to do this is by making education more accessible.
2)  Make incarceration more like a real punishment and less like a government apartment (Free cable! Free meals! Stainless steel amenities! Unlimited masculine sex!).

It is hard to argue against the fact that if you offer a person the chance to go to college/trade school/certificate program/etc. and make something of themselves or continue to struggle on the lower rungs of the economic ladder, possibly resorting to crime due to the lack of direction that education provides, that they will choose the former. So why not take some of the burdens off of our bloated prison system by diverting some of those funds towards social rehabilitation programs that benefit society instead of crushing those that have already been crushed?

I understand that we need to have a way to pay for these things, but why not support legislation that limits how much colleges can raise their rates or otherwise gouge students? Why not try to stem the flow of souls into our prisons by helping people before they decide to become criminals?

Why not take the taxpayer money that the Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi is using to fight gay marriage and use it to promote social programs that support the very family units that she swears will be destroyed by the gay community? Seems like a parent that is a felon and occupying space in a prison might be a worse parent than a (gasp!) gay parent. Not to mention the amount of time and money that the Florida judicial system has to use in order to figure out whether or not we give basic rights to American citizens. Quit clogging up the system with this inane, aimless fight. Take off your bonnet, step out of the covered wagon, and get with the times. After all, you're not without your own questionable practices.

We need to try to elevate those on the bottom of society in order to continue to be a society. Don't just incarcerate everyone; try to educate them. Don't buy more prisons. Instead, build some public (see also: free) colleges.

Seems to me that if you increase the amount of money supporting one side of this issue, you wouldn't need so much money for the other side of it.