Quote:
Originally Posted by GypsyGoth
I think it was on QI that they mentioned that one of the reasons america was competitive in manufacturing was because of the fact that prisoners there are used as slave labour. So I think the place exists at a cost, I'm not naive, the reality of the country is that's unforgiving and it's paranoid, but it also creates a lot of beauty.
But yea I don't see another way for their government to act other than to spy on people. If they don't plan for and prepare against worst case scenarios, I think the country would be overrun by crazy fundamentalists. It could be that the reasons we are so much less likely to die from them, is because the amount being spent is working.
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Well those prisons are run by private corporations, not the state, which means they have shareholders and lobbyists. That's why they are the country that imprisons more of it's own citizens than nearly any other country on earth. Prisons are big business, which in itself is a pretty disgusting thing in my opinion. There is one state that has a 3 strikes and you're out rule, which means if you are convicted of any number of offences 3 times, you'll get a mandatory life sentence. Possession of marijuana 3 times equals a life sentence. Yet the prisons have lobbyists paying money to people in government to prevent these laws from being changed. The system is rigged massively.
America spends more on defence than the next 13 countries below them. Combined. Besides, the Bush government knew all about OBL's plot, they just didn't take it seriously enough. That was without all the currently fashionable spying and wiretapping. You can still defend the country, just without having to watch every individual in order to do so.