Drug laws, the prison system, and big money.

[TnHilltopper]

Originally Posted by GregW

[color=black]War and drugs are where the corrupt and connected make far more money than otherwise possible in the legitimate market.

I really don't know if it was intentional or unintentional (giving the benefit of the doubt) but it certainly seems as though that our former war on poverty, the war on drugs and the rise of the mass production corporate prison system all run hand in hand.

When Nixon started the war against drugs, the budget for this was like 110 million and today it is tens of billions and yet there are more drugs available now than ever before. This whole system we have in place is doing absolutely nothing.

[Nomander]

Originally Posted by Frank_Carbonni

I like how everyone is responsible for everyone else's, but not their own, actions on your planet.

Funny that you mention that. That "fantasy" aspect of thinking. It reminds me of a book I once read by Terry Goodkind. It was his "Sword of Truth" novels and I think it was called "Faith of the Fallen".

To sum it up, the "hero" of the book is captured (black mailed via threat of harm to another) by a female agent and forced to come with her back to the capitol of this growing almost fanatical society that was slowly taking over the world and enslaving its contents to this new philosphy.

The philosophy they preached was to look at ones self shamefully, to see ones own "individual" success as a disregard for others. People were reprimanded if they worked harder than others because it made those who did not work as hard look bad. If an individual made more through their efforts, it was considered disrespectful and selfish which would lead to a committee that judged the issue and dispersed your earnings to those they decided needed it more.

The people were told they should suffer poverty because it was evil to succeed when others in the world did not. They taught that individual responsibility was evil, that it was the responsibility of all to see to the "needs" of others even through the sacrifice of their own.

If a woman was raped, victim responsiblity was heralded. The woman was raped because they were too pretty and that the attacker was not at fault because they gave into their urges, that it would be insensitive to blame them for what was obviously the womans enticing act of arrogance to that attacker by simply being pretty.

Anyway, it was an interesting take on a society and I twinge at times when I hear people make many claims about "social" responsibility and the like because it reminds me so much of that book. Sure, its fictional, but then so are the worlds some people live in that push this Utopian like ideal.

[truthhurts]

Wow, they create threads like this on City-Data, where i actually agree with Tricky, Frank, GregW, and Nomad all on the same thread. Shockingly amazing.

I guess its true if you're walking around a "logical circle" you're bound to cross paths over and over again and agree at some point.

Drugs simply need to be legalized, taxed, and regulated like any other consumer product. If they really want to make it fair, they could use some "protectionist" measures against the drug companies and cigarette companies who would have a comparative early advantage manufacturing and pushing this stuff to market. They could simply do what they do in news/media TV, Cable, and Print. If you own a cigarette company you cannot own a pot or cocaine company. Hehe, i'm not for "protection," but should they legalize it, that would allow smaller citizens a better chance to compete and gain ground. Eventually this regulation would have to automatically be phased out after 10 years or something, as those citizens, that were protected would/should be fat, from the protection. Also after the 10 year phase there can be no consolidation for an additional 5-10 years, so consumers can get the best price, because of large amounts of competition.

If you read old news magazines from the 1920's you can see comments from Adolf Coors, about protecting the industry etc. Although i doubt i'd let my kids watch drug commercials (not that i have kids, but if i did). Eh, this will never happen in America, if the religious right has anything to say about it.....blah