[ryanac]

This would be fine if many prisons were not privately owned entities and if most inmates were not overly sentenced for minor drug charges.

We also have a growing incarceration rate (U.S), which shows that prison does a pretty poor job of making people "scared absolutely shitless of prison so much that they play exactly by the rules" and don't forget, sometimes the rules are pretty ridiculous.

Also "...individuals that would love to sit around with a bunch of other lazy-asses and be fed 3 meals a day. For free." is already the reality of the situation in many cases.

It's not a choice between the scariest most brutal situation you can imagine or no prison at all. There are other options to make a better system. And in general, a society shouldn't have to be scared into "playing by the rules".

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_incarceration_rat... Also read prison privatization.

[hoggle]

True, some institutions shouldn't be privatized at all even though it might look like it's cheaper or more efficient to do so.

It's not always about money, at least not here in Austria. I'm glad we have a baseline level of wealth. Do we always need more? Trying to be better, faster, stronger? When do we stop? Does it make sense in the end? Is it even really guaranteed to be the most productive strategy?

Isn't the fact that I can walk through the most "sketchy" Vienna neighborhoods in the middle of the night worth quite a bit? Again I'm not talking about money here.