| | |
|
RealityVsUnreality 18 - 21 Feb 2009 - Main.AaronShepard
|
| |
| META TOPICPARENT | name="WebPreferences" |
|---|
When Prof. Moglen was discussing the wide chasm separating between what we know about the penal system and what really transpires behind prison doors, it occurred to me that this divergence between reality and unreality certainly isn't unqiue to the criminal "justice" system, and that the failure to bridge that gap often leads to a distorted understanding of human behavior in other contexts as well. In the case of the penal system, we witness some alarming absurdities: the father who thinks jail time will "shape up" his son, the politician who pads his resume with convictions, the prosecutor whose political ties pervert her duties as a public servant, and a community which thinks itself safer despite rising rates of incarceration and crime. These symptoms are no doubt worrisome, but I believe the same social forces operate in other cases as well. | | | Aaron, I apologize for my response if you were not intending to comment on the "freeriding" problem as associated with the mental illnesses point that I mentioned. Apparently there was some confusion regarding the separation between Jamila's comment and my own; my only comment on this thread was regarding the prevalence of psychiatric disorders in homeless individuals.
-- LaurenRosenberg - 20 Feb 2009 | |
>
> |
Jamilla, I would think the facial benefits 'free' public housing could have are apparent, but the problem is cost. Whereas vaccines provide a direct social benefit to everyone in the community in stopping the spread of disease, creating more public housing projects would have more tangential benefits, in addition to having a larger cost. Ideally, free public housing would be a nice thing to have, but I don't think the problems presented by it can be dealt with by merely shifting community values.
I don't disagree with what you propose, but I don't think there are pragmatic, or even reachable, systems of incentives that would make this outcome possible. Furthermore, I don't think that we are in a system-wide collapse, or that there will be an eventual overthrow of the current system. I think the public apathy that prevents some progress works here as well.
I think the current political climate is ripe to make some dramatic shifts in communal priorities, so perhaps progress on this issue will be made. But is this something that will be pursued?
-- AaronShepard - 21 Feb 2009 | | |
\ No newline at end of file |
|
|
|
|
This site is powered by the TWiki collaboration platform.
All material on this collaboration platform is the property of the contributing authors.
All material marked as authored by Eben Moglen is available under the license terms CC-BY-SA version 4.
|
|
| | |