from:alt.conspiracy
As, always, Caveat Lector
Om
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Click Here: A HREF="aol://5863:126/alt.conspiracy:626557"Drug war economics
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Subject: Drug war economics
From: "Jerry G" A HREF="mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]"[EMAIL PROTECTED]/A
Date: Fri, Jul 7, 2000 6:02 PM
Message-id: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
The public service announcments are if anything a challenge
to our young people to try drugs. The PSA's tell them you can
never be anything if you are on/or have ever been on drugs,
many kids can see past this obvious lie, look at the athletes,
tv and movie stars, and politicians that are obviously successful
that use drugs, and at their own friends, for some I'm sure the
question comes to their mind, if they lied about this what else
did they lie about, maybe drugs aren't really that bad after all.
A HREF="http://www.mv.com/ipusers/barbarian/book/dwe.htm"http://www.mv.com/i
pusers/barbarian/book/dwe.htm/A
Please copy/mirror/pass around as long as there are no changes to the
html/text. Controversial!!
(warning:783k)
excerpts:
Drug War Economics
[snip]
Colleges or Prisons
Every year, California budgets are fought on this issue. With the annual
introduction of million dollar campaign contributions to the Wilson
campaign, prison budgets are again on the rise. Are these prisons a
deterrent to crime or a ticket to crime? What is the economic effect of the
prison system on California and the future? Conclusions are drawn from the
following data.
A four year degree costs $20,000 at $5,000 per year.
The average lifetime value of a college degree is $600,000.
"Three Strikes" lifetime costs average 40 years at $25,000 a year.
Over 700,000 drug offenders are in American jails and 1.5 million inmates
total. Department of Corrections, "Three Strikes" estimates are 20 new
prisons at $500,000,000 each for 84,000 additional inmates. (25 year Prison
bonds)
Here are the results given the above information:
Each new prison cost's $120,000 per inmate to build.
America denies 6 citizens a college education for each new prison bed.
Each new prison bed is worth $3,600,000 in lost future income for America.
Each "Three Strikes" inmate denies 50 college degrees.
Each "Three Strikes" inmate denies America $30,000,000 in future income.
Each "Three Strikes" inmate costs the Federal Government $4,500,000 in
future taxes at 15% and California $1,800,000 at 6%. America spends 17.5
billion dollars to jail drug offenders annually. This denies 875,000 college
degrees each year.
Over the next 40 years, America will spend over $700 billion housing drug
offenders. This will deny 35,000,000 a college degree worth 21 trillion
dollars in lost future income. This represents over $500 billion in lost
wages annually in America, over $75 billion in federal revenues, and $3
billion in revenues to California. Every dollar needlessly spent on the Drug
War or other prison programs denies America $30 in future income and $6.25
in future tax revenues.
California has the second largest prison system in the world and is second
only to China in prison population. We are now going through a second prison
boom called, "Three Strikes." During our "Three Strikes" debate, none of our
local candidates, Pete Wilson, the media, or the prison industry had any
idea of the costs of this bill or where the money would come from to pay for
the program. Here is the State's response under Pete Wilson and the "Three
Strikes" frenzy.
Q: Has anyone in your office found out how much this bill is going to cost?
A: No. Q: Why not? A: It is not our responsibility. Q: Whose is it? A: I don
't know. Q: Why not? A: I don't know. Q: Then why don't you do the study
yourself? A: We do not have the money to do the study. Q: Then how will we
pay for "Three Strikes" ?A: I don't know. Q: Is this representative going to
support the Bill? A: Yes Q: WHY? A: Because he has to be tough on crime. Q:
Can this bankrupt the state? A: I hope not. Senator Hayden was the only one
asking these questions.
The prison industry has earned the name "Grey Gold" in California. Each new
prison generates annual payrolls approaching $100 million. This provides
employees good, middle class wages and benefits. Prisons are an economic
boom for local economies. Unfortunately, they do not provide prosperity to
this state or country. They create nothing for domestic or foreign markets
for a stable economic base. Increased prison costs decrease future revenues
for citizens and government. Finally, the tax base is the market for the
prison industry.
"Three Strikes" is a 70% increase in prison population in five years. The
increased annual costs are $3 billion a year after $10 billion in
construction costs for twenty new prisons. Pete Wilson and prison industry
representatives have recently claimed "Three Strikes" as cost effective. The
authors of studies, they used as references, refuted those claims. "This
program will deny 600,000 California residents $5,000 a year in college and
job training. By the
