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SubscriptionsSites I Read
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| "Violent crime is down in New York and many other cities, but there are two big reasons to keep the champagne corked. One is that murder, rape, robbery, and assault remain at historic highs: the streets of Manhattan, like those of Houston, Philadelphia, Detroit, Chicago, and Los Angeles, remain much less safe today than in the 1950s and 1960s. Worse, though policing and prison policies matter, nothing affects crime rates more than the number of young males in the population—and by the year 2010, there will be about 4.5 million more males age 17 or under than there were in 1990: 8 percent more whites and 26 percent more blacks. Since around 6 percent of young males turn out to be career criminals, according to the historical data, this increase will put an estimated 270,000 more young predators on the streets than in 1990, coming at us in waves over the next two decades. Numerous studies show that each succeeding generation of young male criminals commits about three times as much serious crime as the one before it: the occasional fatal knife fight of 1950s street gangs has given way to the frequent drive-by shootings of 1990s gangs."
This little snippet caught my eye; it is a serious problem that is going to plague our society. Building prisons and housing inmates costs a great deal of money. As it is, California prison's are overcrowded, and the statistics point to an increase of prisoners within the next five to ten years. How are we going to afford such a burden? When faced with such a puzzling question I look to the Greeks for answers. I’d have to say that we need to ‘expose’ some of the prisoners. Although, I think the Greeks did that with babies, so maybe it is too late to do that. I think the answer would be in finding a way for them to help pay their debt to society. As a tax payer I want to get some return from the money that is taken from me. Sure I’m benefiting from criminals being off the streets and in prison, but I should at least be entertained. I think a prison reality show would be a great way of making money. 'Jeopardy Prison Edition’ would be amusing, or 'Making The Band San Quintan'.
In California, some people argue that our 'three strikes law' needs to be revised, and the parole system needs to be altered. Educational opportunities and drug treatment programs need to be well funded inorder to reduce the amount of repeat criminals. I think we need to build more prisons. We should focus our attention toward our children and do everything possible to educate them. Instead of spending money on rehabilitating criminals we should spend that money on creating programs for impoverished children.
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| What's wrong with Walmart? There's a lot of controversy over Walmart and its impact on communities. From an environmental stand point, they pave over vast amounts of land. From an economic stand point, they typically pay their employees minimum wage with no benefits and disperse local small businesses. They also tend to buy their products from countries with dismal human rights records. All that aside, I think the advantage(singular) that Walmart provides far out weigh the disadvantages. The advantage I'm talking about is of course the stores ability to act as an anti depressant. What do I mean by this? Recently, my community was graced with the presence of a super walmart. I know Walmart isn't the classiest of places, something the CEO would even admit, and it's not as though I'm a pompous prick, but I must say that mutants are attracted to the place like moths to a flame. They not only love to shop there, but many of them also work there. I don't know if it's politically correct to say, but every time I go to Walmart my self esteem goes up. Is it wrong? I'm sure other people feel the same way. If you haven't tried it you should. Even if you are a mutant, there's always a person with a more extreme mutation. It's wonderful therapy if you can stomach it. The employees make me feel like Einstein, and the shoppers make me feel like Brad Pitt. Viva Walmart. | | |
| Social Darwinism comes to mind everytime I recieve the results from my practice Lsat. I am struggling to get above a 150, and have come to the realization that social darwinism explains my situatation. My highest score thus far has been a 150, and I have taken 4 practice Lsats. My goal since senior year of highschool has been to become a lawyer; however, at the time when I was pondering the thought of becoming a lawyer, I was unaware that my mental ability would be dismal and stagnant. The cool thing about this situation is that I will have the opportunity to prove that hard work can overcome any obstacle. | | |
| My friend Kirk and I always joke about being economic slaves. We try to find the humor in our situation because it helps alleviate the sadness. It is funny to us that our jobs sometimes require us to do menial things, such as, cleaning out a trash can with a toothbrush or serving 200 eager baby boomers a caffinated beverage in the morning time. I am sure most people can relate to situations of the average proletariat, at least to an extent.I consider myself a modern proletariat because I do not own the means of production and I do not earn the profit of my labor. Proletariats are everywhere, and sometimes I ask myself if they are aware of their situation. Most of the time I will come to the conclusion that very few are aware of the economic system and situation that they are a part of, but I am sure nearly all of them hate what they do. I think Aristotle would call these people slaves because many of them are unable to see a day ahead of themselves. This ties in to my belief that slavery still exists, but it has taken a new form. Economic slavery is everywhere, but since slavery has such negative connotations, the word is rarely used. Let us face the truth, and that is that if you live in a capitalist nation and do not join the economy you will not be part of society. So that leaves us with the option to either start a business or work for someone. Too often we choose to work for someone and thus become proletariates, which typically means low wages. I imagine that it is extremely hard to live on such low wages, and I realize that although I am one of them, my life is a little easier because my parents still help me. In life if you do not learn a skill or you do not start a business, you are destined to be a bitter proletariat. Since many people hear Kirk and I jokingly complain about the exploitation of proletariats, they think we are against capitalism. In fact, it is quite the opposite. We fully embrace capitalism. Our only concern is that we find a way to be part of the bourgeoisie, so that we could own the means of production. Exploitation is wonderful as long as you are the exploiter and not the exploited. That is what makes capitalism the greatest economic system thus far. A business owner understands that economic slaves will always be around because there will always be people who can't see a day ahead of themselves. And if you can't see a day ahead of your self then it is not wrong to exploit your labor. Do people in my generation ever ponder these questions? I would guess that the majority of them do not but I am sure some do. Is my point of view a strange argument in favor of capitalism? Can you sense the honesty and satire? | | |
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