Being Unreasonable

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There are certain jobs that I consider parasitic, off the top of my head I would list parking enforcement, roving tow and currency speculating, but there are many more. None of these jobs create any value, they simply siphon money at someone's expense. Roving tow and parking enforcement in particular also seem to erode the soul, people who can tolerate working at either job for any length of time tend to be both unpleasant and unreasonable based on my experience. Both jobs have a confrontational air to them, and require virtual legal extortion, most decent people simply cannot do these jobs. Technically, both jobs are supposed to be for the greater good, keeping things orderly, but the commission based pay has created perverse incentives to act in a manner not designed to benefit others, but take their money. When I go to work and get paid, I'm not taking money out of anybody else's pocket, these people are, so I wouldn't feel too bad for them.

Yeah, kind of like being a repo-guy? One of our friends had that position and I've noticed that you almost have to be the kind of person who likes getting into trouble a bit to actually stay with that for any amount of time. He had some pretty wild stories about it and yeah, it sounds almost like being paid to loan-shark for the banks.

I think it is kind of telling in the sense that it takes all kinds to make the world go 'round.

^

I would consider being a repo-man to be more ethical than being a meter maid or a roving tow driver, at least the repo-man is stealing back what is in essence stolen property. The other two are enforcing an often arbitrary and unreasonable penalty on people for making small mistakes that they are likely unaware that they are even making.

Correct. I think out this way we just don't have a lot of that, ie. meter maid and parking enforcement people. Maybe a little bit in downtown Cleveland, when I was in college though I always got a parking pass just because all the meters were strictly 2 hour feed and I didn't want to have to keep running downstairs and through the snow half the time just to get a few more quarters in.

But yeah, I certainly don't see repo work as unethical either. Being a meter maid is rather directly being a tax-collector for the city and doing it by picking at people over small matters. I don't think I could do that or be a telemarketer but, I also understand that there are people out there that desperate to make a living so its a hard call.

And you then have a fabulous crime-solving theory that prevents the victims of crime from being the repeat victims of crime? Or that prevents crime being caused by people provably known to cause crime? That involves neither the insane and unworkable magic potion of rehabilitation, or the costly, space-wasting and time-burgling incarceration?

And it matters not if you do, my example still stands. The law, as legal as it may be, is not always right or moral.

So your solution is to keep doing the same damned stupid thing we always have been doing and to hell with trying to make sense of a very bad situation. No, I have no easy answers but the immense stupidity of not looking for them frankly doesn't appeal to me.

Well, I think if we're to go Sand's route and say that jail is insanely useless, with a lot of these cases where its really incorrigible and where DNA evidence has it, I'd say the only other option available is a bullet a few days after trial - which would be ideal but many worry about that being a 'slippery slope'. One thing is for certain though, if we care so much more about the rights of the criminals rather than the victims themselves I have doubts on how far our society can continue.

Hey! let's just clap our hands together and shoot all the bastards! The world is overpopulated anyway. No thinking or exploration or psychology or science necessary. I thought this was a site for bright people.

These great metaphysical answers you speak of for finding out how to cure people of narcissism, sociopathy, psychopathy, do you even have articles from people who think like you do and have actually taken a stand into solving these problems?

Saying "You know I wish it was a better world" does nothing, and it doesn't work as an indictment against those who wish to deal with it as it is either.



No, its for stupid people like myself or stupid people who fantasize delusions of grandeur about their own intellect by political fantasy and "intellectualism" - the later is a great ego vehicle and they don't need to prove a thing, they can just criticize away and feel superior. Myself, I have no need of all that.

It would be truly wondrous if rehab worked. It would be nothing short of miraculous if we had no call to imprison individuals. Wouldn't it be lovely if there wasn't any crime?

Until someone comes up with some brilliant variant, incarceration is about as humane as it gets. Ten years is little comfort to the child who was 8 and is now 18, who knows and understands that her attacker is free again. Who would wish that form of worried fear and sleepless night on anyone? Or the families of the murdered, knowing full well that wholly legally, the killer of their loved ones walks free?

Keeping vaguely in topic.. is it so very unreasonable for the victims of crime to expect just recompense, and peace of mind? Is it reasonable for them to have to live in fear? Is it reasonable for the rest of us to have to live in fear that we will be the next victim of those known to cause harm?

Exactly.

If you want to live in continuous fear there are plenty of possibilities from meteor strikes to psychopaths to tsunamis. It's quite evident that prison is an educational institution into crime and hatred of society. There must be something better.

I have no fear, just prefer to handle situations as best I can. Someone could take my life tomorrow - being on spectrum that would actually kinda make me happy. No, what it really boils down to is that I don't want to see others being harmed, others in pain, especially when they did nothing to deserve it, it makes my blood boil.

Prison may teach hate for society but people have to really wonder how they ended up there. If someone ends up in prison and is still able to blame everyone else but themselves for their being there - they're probably beyond hope of any proper introspection. If it teaches hate, that hate most likely comes from their own denial of responsibility for their actions.

I too often wonder at the efficacy of imprisonment, and though it's extremely imperfect, I've yet to think of anything better. I think it could be improved dramatically if we reformed our drug policy, since that would reduce the inmate population by 60% or more and relieve the worst of the crowding problems. We'd also have to look really hard at the relationships between the courts and the private prisons, since they often have huge conflicts of interest. My boss in Denver once got a DUI and was sentenced to a halfway house that was partially owned by the judge that sentenced him, I don't see how that was allowed. As much as I like privatization, I really don't like the idea that someone is making money off of imprisoning people, it makes my "perverse incentive" alarm ring very loudly. The goal should be true rehabilitation and reentry to society, not keeping someone in the system as long as possible to keep the money rolling in.