The New York Timesnotes that Mexico’s jails are “places where drug traffickers find a new base of operations for their criminal empires, recruit underlings, and bribe their way out for the right price.”
Amazing. Armed guards. All the bad guys behind bars. Under constant supervision. And Mexico still can’t keep drugs and drug dealing out of its prisons. The U.S. suffers from the same problem, by the way.
If authorities can’t keep drugs out of prisons, how can they expect to keep them out the hands of the general population? Maybe, just possibly, prohibition is not an effective way of stopping drug abuse.
Sin taxes are often justified by claiming that the item/behavior taxes costs the taxpayer money. By applying a tax, the government claims it can pay for the public services that the behavior produces a need for as well as increasing the cost of the behavior thereby discouraging continuation. The most obvious example is the cigarette tax. Increased prices supposedly incentivize smokers to quit or at least temper their addiction, while revenues from the tax can pay for health services.
But what is more harmful and costs more taxpayer dollars than cigarettes, beer, and gambling combined? Out of control government spending! Sure, people without insurance
How many billions in bailout money have we spent in the last few months to bail out the blessed and chosen industries–$500 billion? More? Only to have those companies fail anyway? Now senate is talking about increasing the federal excise tax on beverages (covering beer, wine, and soft drinks) in order to pay for the proposed $1.5 trillion increase in health care costs for those without insurance.
While there are certainly better ways to get the uninsured insured than simply having the government dole out money, if that’s the way they want to play it, there’s a more morally acceptable way to get the cash in my mind—cut entire government programs. Hell, they could pay for the entire increase in health care costs (and then some) by simply doing away with the Drug Enforcement Agency’s $3 trillion budget.
But no, the logic (using the term loosely) our legislators seem to be basing their decisions on is that people are more accepting of tax increases than of cutting programs. The real “sinners” aren’t brewers, drinkers, or pub owners so why should they be punished? The real sinners are legislators that haven’t courage enough to stop promising services, stop spending, and stop increasing their already corpulent budgets. You can send this generic protest letter to your Senator.
Maybe if we started taxing senators every time they suggested a new social program or tax increase we’d able to pay for everyones’ medical care three times over.
ABC is debuting its new show “Homeland Security USA” tonight at 8pm eastern time. Presumably the show is intended to make us all proud to be an American. If the previews are any indication, I won’t be feeling very proud.
Many of the preview segments focus on busting drug runners, probably because it makes for very good television. Cutting open a Ford Contour at the border and finding bundles of some sort of drug has a sort of “gotcha” appeal. The appeal of high-speed boat chases doesn’t need to be explained.
Seeing criminals caught red-handed (think “America’s Most Wanted”) is usually satisfying, but when it’s for the victimless crime of transporting drugs, there’s little to be excited about.
By creating black markets for cocaine, heroine, and other drugs, the “War on Drugs” has helped only criminals. By making drugs hard to come by, prices have gone up. Making substances that were once available at any drugstore worth their weight in gold. Just like alcohol prohibition created Al Capone and the modern mafia, the drug war has fueled organized crime and created urban gang violence. Protecting the turf where drugs are sold has caused violence to escalate, hurting countless people not involved in the drug trade and tearing apart our inner cities.
So, seeing federal agents chase down a drug smuggler, beat him, and arrest, him doesn’t fill me with patriotic fervor.
The rest of the show concerns itself with Homeland Security’s role is policing our borders not for illegal things, but illegal people. The clip shown on the website shows an officer saving us from the menace of a woman trying to work in the US without a proper work Visa. How dare she!
The comic tragedy of the interaction between the agent and this Visa-less woman is her would-be profession: she wants to be a belly dancer.
Surely America can afford to have one belly dancing gig go to a foreigner!
It’s thinking of tragedies and absurdities like these that sap what patriotism I have left.
I hope Americans see this show and sees it for what it is, a naked admission of just how out of control government has become.
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