Posted by caraher on July 25, 2008, at 14:00:53
In reply to Very interesting story on prisons, posted by fayeroe on July 24, 2008, at 19:41:03
And don't forget that in this age of privatization, incarceration is big business.
Only tangentially related, this reminds me of a piece by an instructor at Harvard:
"One of my less affluent students, the son of a postman, asked me once for advice about a financial investment. He said his friends had told him to invest "in prisons", meaning one of the private companies winning the management contracts for correctional facilities. I told him what I thought about this recommendation; but only later, when I learnt how little he had to invest ($2,000 was his total savings), did I allow myself to think I understood the significance of his question. No amount of money may be permitted to lie idle if something may be got for nothing. The capitalist theory of life as a game disallows uncapitalised advantages."
from http://www.timeshighereducation.co.uk/story.asp?sectioncode=26&storycode=402674
poster:caraher
thread:841843
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/poli/20080312/msgs/842001.html