Hacker News new | ask | show | jobs
by genoapol 2189 days ago
Most of the poor countries you mention don't have an intentionally created underclass. The economic background and the tremendous intentional income/wealth inequality in the US adds a bit more complexity.

In most countries, you won't end up in jail because you make less than $X, the US penalizes being poor. The US jail population as a % of the world's total jailed population is a clear indicator.

Also its quite interesting that American whites commit crime at a higher rate than UK blacks. There is something systemic at work here.

It seems the few decades of gutting social safety nets compounded with the trend of shutting down schools to make funds available for policing and jail building created a pipeline directly to jail for the newly undereducated and poor. A pipeline with perverse incentives that helped corporations and the US government exploit almost free ($0.25/hr) domestic prison slave labor for weapons, defense, and general manufacturing.

1 comments

That's a really really weird view if everyone is equally as poor people don't murder?