False Entitlement

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Prison or Death? A Third Alternative

 

1. In a Libertarian society there will be full employment. The small numbers of truly non-self-sustaining people will be kept alive by private charity. Government should not have to placate people who simply refuse to work with "entitlements" in order to keep them from robbing banks and burning down the cities. A minuscule fraction of this expense can be used to solve these problems justly and in a way consistent with the principles of evolution.

 

2. Societies have traditionally designated certain areas within which non-self-sustaining humans are placed to protect the liberty of productive individuals. Such areas need not necessarily have cell blocks, guards, or even "rehabilitation" programs, all of which cost others a good deal of money.

 

3. A prison, if large enough, can be self-sustaining when it's inmates are prevailed upon to make it so. Within the walls of such a prison, any degree of liberty can exist which the inmates are capable of sustaining. There can be fields, gardens, livestock, manufacturing, and even smaller prisons. A prison of this sort can be a nine square mile, autonomous, but contained, microcosm of society. There can even be free trade with the surrounding country just as there is among sovereign nations. Such prisons can be referred to as "isolation communities." One or two per country would be adequate.

 

4. A Libertarian, out of deference to the loved ones of criminals, might well stand against the death penalty. There are some crimes, however, that make such huge breech with humanity that the perpetrators can never again be trusted and, for public safety, should be executed. The crimes in question are rape, child molestation, kidnapping, human trafficking, snuff or child pornography, torture, arbitrary and serial murder. If these crimes carry the death penalty even the constitutional psychopath will avoid committing them simply as a matter of practicality.

 

Some cases of murder are different and demand specific scrutiny. For example, in some cases, the public might want to award a good citizenship badge to the perpetrator depending on the victim, perhaps with an admonition against private justice and a small fine to cover court costs. With murder there can be extensive mitigating circumstances. With the crimes mentioned previously there cannot.