- 15 Feb 2003 21:08
#319
"All men are born free but everywhere they are in chains." ~Jean Jacques Rousseau
Nobody can defend the capital punishment on the basis of economics. As Mr. CasX already stated, the costs of living for the prisoner is as draining on the state's fund as it does maintaining and executing death-inducing instruments (wow, nice euphemism for killing machines, eh? ).
In addition, if "fear is an efficient tool of management", why don't we just throw all our freedoms all away, and go live in a Fascist state? That is a terrible argument for anyone who even remotely supports human rights. Sorry, but I for one would rather not live in perpetual state of fear. And once again, numerous studies already show that the enforcement of death penalty does not reduce crime rates.
About the forced labour alternative, I'm pretty certain that prisoners in the U.S. are required to perform simple services for the state, like making licence plates and such. At first I thought that forced labour was also violation to human rights, but then again, a man should not be able to live without working ("He who shall not work shall not eat" ~Lenin), for then a beggar could just commit a crime and spend his time in prison again and again, as his incentive would be that prison is better than what he has on the outside.
In addition, if "fear is an efficient tool of management", why don't we just throw all our freedoms all away, and go live in a Fascist state? That is a terrible argument for anyone who even remotely supports human rights. Sorry, but I for one would rather not live in perpetual state of fear. And once again, numerous studies already show that the enforcement of death penalty does not reduce crime rates.
About the forced labour alternative, I'm pretty certain that prisoners in the U.S. are required to perform simple services for the state, like making licence plates and such. At first I thought that forced labour was also violation to human rights, but then again, a man should not be able to live without working ("He who shall not work shall not eat" ~Lenin), for then a beggar could just commit a crime and spend his time in prison again and again, as his incentive would be that prison is better than what he has on the outside.
"All men are born free but everywhere they are in chains." ~Jean Jacques Rousseau