Saturday, January 28, 2006

Here Here for Paying for Prison

Well, I’ve been pondering on the topic of yesterday’s class of how crime is profitable. I couldn’t believe we, America’s best and brightest, are paying nearly $30 grand a year to get our education and try to make something out of ourselves, when these criminals get to spend a lousy 5 years in pretty much the same conditions without paying anything; actually, benefiting by $18 grand. Why do they get a free ride?

I found an article where a county jail made their prisoners pay $20 dollars a day. Despite the many criticisms, this program actually worked. The article also made the point that they originally didn’t expect this to work because criminals are already so far behind, but they made the payments.

I say screw them. They know what they did. They have that $18 grand from selling the stolen car sitting at home. I have no remorse for anyone who breaks the law and benefits from it. Especially since I’m sitting here trying to keep my grades up so I don’t get the little scholarship money I have taken away.

Why don’t they try this out in more places? Where would the money go? Should we feel bad for the criminals who would have the criminal record and in debt?

Just for reference, let’s see how much a MC student would benefit from stealing some cars. First, we have the choice to stay in school. Pay the $150 grand for 5 years of school, plus whatever interest on student loans there are, and then hope to God the school repays you with a good enough job to just pass by in life. Second choice, steal a few cars and finally get caught on the third car. After benefiting $60 grand per car and putting it in a savings account, you get sent to 5 years of prison. You finally get out and return to life with your $180 grand (plus interest over those 5 years) sitting in the bank. Granted, you would have to get an education while in prison to be on the same page as a graduate, but being $180 grand richer as opposed to $150 in the hole just seems very tempting (ignoring the other factors of course).

1 comment:

Hang Li said...

Firstly, I want to say a diploma of college does not mean a long-term good job in future. A student who graduated from MC still possible has to work in War-mart. In contrast, a thief does not mean that he will surely be caught! In my view, this question should be answered from two directions: from the financial benefit and from the ethic.
From the financial benefit, stealing car is a good way to earn money. If a thief is skillful at stealing cars and is full of experience of how to avoid being caught, compared with that $7,500 cost every year, stealing cars could be a good job which can bring him millions of dollars per years. Besides, remember, the percentage of being caught is only 2%. So only those stupidest and unluckiest thieves could be caught. Let’s suppose that if your skill of stealing cars is as good as a protagonist in a famous movie, "Gone in sixty minutes", will you reconsider which way to go?
However, most of us do not like to be a car thief. That is because of our culture, because the common ethic is that it is wrong and shameful to be a thief. Furthermore, the meaning of the human’s lives does not only equal to money. Like somebody just wants to lead an easy life and somebody want to be the hero of business. To those people whose has and hold their own dream, no matter how attractive to be a car thief will be, they will never, ever walk on this way.