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by crdoconnor 3691 days ago
Well, in DC policy circles, the presumed arbiter of what constitutes "free markets" or "economic freedom":

http://www.heritage.org/index/ranking

Is very much in favor of private prisons (and, consequently, $10/min phone calls):

http://www.heritage.org/research/reports/1988/05/bg650-a-gui...

2 comments

> the presumed arbiter of what constitutes "free markets" or "economic freedom"

This assumption is ludicrous. I can't even imagine the thought process that would lead you to think that that makes any sense. Being the loudest proponent of your vision of a concept doesn't make you a good arbiter of what constitutes it: in fact it makes you a terrible one.

Not that I have as low an opinion of Heritage as I do of them, but do you think the Westboro Baptist Church is the "presumed arbiter" of what constitutes Christianity, simply because they shout the loudest about God?

Westboro are not taken seriously in DC policy circles. Heritage are taken very seriously.
I wonder if their view has changed over the almost 30 years since that research report was published.
If anything they seem to have gotten more rabid:

http://www.heritage.org/research/commentary/2000/10/the-left...

I wonder if their viewpoint has changed since the more than decade and a half since that article was published. Is it that hard to find something current if it's so fundamental to your argument?