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PeakTrader:

The U.S. is much better at catching criminals than most countries.

And, U.S. major crime rates are at one-third the levels compared to the 1970s.

Moreover, there’s a strong positive correlation between drugs and crime, and many criminals plea bargain to lesser charges or had charges reduced to raise conviction rates.

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Seychelles has almost the same incarceration rate as the U.S. (709 to 713 per 100,000).

Here’s what Wikipedia says:

“Seychelles performed excellently on the 2010 Ibrahim Index of African Governance, ranking second out of 48 sub-Saharan African countries, with an overall score of 79 out of 100, second only to Mauritius, which received a score of 83. Particularly good were its scores in Safety and Security.”

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AIG, I agree. And, here’s another fact about Seychelles:

“Has the highest income inequality in the world, as measured by the Gini index.”

I guess, some people would be happy about that, to make up for its “sad” incarceration rate

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AIG says: “Seychelles also has the highest GDP per capita in the African continent. Coincidence?”

That’s not saying much with the highest income inequality in the world.

GDP – per capita:

Official exchange rate – $12,068 (2007)
Purchasing power parity – $21,653 (2007)

Industries:

Fishing, tourism, processing of coconuts and vanilla, coir (coconut fiber), rope, boat building, printing, furniture, beverages.

Growth has been led by the tourist sector, which employs about 30% of the labor force and provides more than 70% of hard currency earnings, followed by tuna fishing.

My comment: The tourist industry is a major factor why per capita GDP is also high in San Francisco.

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Anyway, income inequality isn’t a problem, unless it causes a decline in real income or living standards, in a growing economy, for a significant segment of the labor force.

And some workers are overpaid, while other workers are underpaid or find ways to be paid for not working.

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James, you’re part of the immorality and ignorance in this country. Promoting illegal drug use and creating drug addicts causes more damage to society.

For example, I asked someone like you if you own your house, in a housing tract, should you be able to burn it down as long as there are no victims?

His response was: “No, you can’t, because you will ruin the views for neighbours and will lower the value of their homes. It is the same thing as deciding to let garbage pile up on your front lawn.”

I responded: “Exactly.” However, it’s even worse than that.

It’s naive to assume Americans are in prison just for smoking marijuana or taking LSD on weekends. They’re in prison for drug-related crimes, e.g. property and violent crimes.

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Harold Beaver, I don’t know what you’re talking about and you don’t either.

You’re implying the average sentence of 81.5 months is for having a marijuana plant in your basement or a hit of LSD in your pocket.

There are many non-violent serious crimes, e.g. embezzlement, fraud, stealing lots of money from an old lady, etc.. Just because someone has been proven guilty one time doesn’t mean he didn’t commit many crimes before.

Yes, you can get arrested for having LSD on you. However, cops don’t search your pockets for no reason.

We know legalizing drugs will cause more drug users and more drug users will cause more crime. We don’t need more prisons.

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Are you suggesting we’re not spending enough to fight crime after the explosion of crimes when drug use became much more popular?

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Study: Despite drop in gun crime, 56% think it’s worse
USA Today
May 31, 2013

“Violent gun crime has dropped dramatically in the past two decades, but the majority of Americans think it’s more of a problem now than ever, according to a Pew Research Center study.

The rate of non-fatal violent gun crime victimization dropped 75% in the past 20 years; The gun homicide rate dropped 49% in the same period, according to numbers Pew researchers obtained from the Bureau of Justice Statistics and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

“The public doesn’t get its feelings out of crime statistics,” said Alfred Blumstein, an urban systems professor at Heinz College at Carnegie Mellon University. “The public gets its feelings from particularly notorious events, and what the press talks about.”

“It’s not just gun crime — it’s all crime has gone down,” said David Hemenway, a professor at Harvard’s School of Public Health.

Starting in 1993, homicides and robberies began to drop. Blumstein said that was in part due to the decline of the crack cocaine trade, which from 1985 to 1993 fueled a 25% increase in those crimes.”

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http://www.aei-ideas.org/2013/07/thanks-to-the-drug-war-the-us-incarcerates-more-of-its-own-people-than-any-country-in-the-world-except-maybe-n-korea/#comments

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PeakTrader:

“Obamacare begins to unravel”

It has a long way to go:

Obama delays health law employer fees, other taxes on track
Jul 3, 2013

“The Obama administration has given employers an extra year to provide health insurance for their workers…requiring businesses with 50 or more workers to decide whether to cover workers or pay a fine.

The “employer mandate” subjects companies to a $2,000 fine for each full-time employee lacking coverage, with the first 30 employees excluded from the fee.

The delay does not impact other taxes and fees…New taxes for the wealthy and on medical devices are already being collected. Other tax rules are being finalized by the Internal Revenue Service.

BEGINNING IN 2014

* Individual mandate penalty fee. Starting in 2014, most Americans must have health insurance, or pay a fee to the IRS. The fee will be $95, or 1 percent of taxable household income, in 2014; rising in phases by 2016 to $695 per person, with a cap of 2.5 percent of household income.

* Health insurance premium tax credit. Starting in 2014, low- and middle-income individuals can claim a tax credit, based on percentage of income, to help them afford obtaining insurance in state-run insurance marketplaces.

* Fees on health insurance companies. The government will collect revenue from health plans, beginning by raising $8 billion in 2014 and ramping up to raise $14.3 billion in 2018. Subsequent years’ fees will be based on the rate of premium growth.

IN EFFECT

* Additional Medicare Tax for wealthy. A 0.9-percent added tax on wages is in place for individuals with incomes exceeding $200,000, or married couples earning more than $250,000.

* Net Investment Income Tax. A new tax on investment income, such as capital gains and dividends, of 3.8 percent is in place, also for upper-income taxpayers only.

* Small business tax credits. For businesses with fewer than 25 workers and average annual wages of less than $50,000 per person, a tax credit is available to offset the costs of providing healthcare coverage to employees. Set at up to 35 percent of employer contribution for small employers and 25 percent for tax-exempt employers, the credit will rise by 2014 to up to 50 percent.

* Drugmaker fees. An annual fee on drugmakers based on sales and market share.

* Medical device excise tax. An excise tax of 2.3 percent on sales of medical devices is levied on manufacturers, which are responsible for reporting and paying the tax.

* Tanning salon tax. A 10 percent excise tax on consumer payments to indoor tanning salons, it is collected by the salons at the time of service and passed on to the government.”

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We got Obamacare for the Obama Depression (which began after the Bush Recession):

http://www.advisorperspectives.com/dshort/charts/indicators/GDP-per-capita-overview.html?Real-GDP-per-capita-since-1960-log.gif

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PeakTrader:

Morganovich, people like you is why there are drug tests.

You believe, you’re giving people rights by legalizing drugs. However, you’d actually take rights away from them.

If you take away guns, crime goes up, and if you legalize drugs, crime goes up. You want to give people less protection by legalizing drugs, like making guns illegal.

You should forget about drugs and focus on the TSA, if you really care about rights rather than drugs.

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Jack, Joseph Goebbels would’ve been proud of you.

How do you know it wasn’t worse in the 1950s before drugs caused the explosion of crime? Yes, drug addicts cause lots of problems.

U.S. Illegal Drug Use Down Substantially from 1970s
17 April 2012

“Drug use in the United States “has dropped substantially over the past thirty years,” thanks to local, state and federal government efforts, as well as international cooperation.

“The rate of Americans using illicit drugs today is roughly one-third the rate it was in the late ’70s.

More recently, there has been a 40 percent drop in current cocaine use and meth use has dropped by half.””

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US crime rate at lowest point in decades.
January 9, 2012

“The last time the crime rate for serious crime – murder, rape, robbery, assault – fell to these levels…was 1963.”

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