Will Grigg?s Liberty Minute

May 6, 2011

The real estate bubble collapsed years ago, but one segment of the housing market continues to thrive ? incarceration.

Like the Federal Reserve-driven housing bubble, the prison economic boom reflects government intervention, not market demand. According to the Bureau of Justice Statistics, the national crime rate began a precipitous decline in 1993. The national crime rate was 18 percent lower in 2004 than it was in 1970. The homicide rate is the lowest it has been since 1965. Yet prison construction, and the concomitant expansion of its support industry, continues unabated.

The Wall Street Journal recently noted that in California, prison guards with GEDs can expect to earn more ? and receive better benefits ? than Harvard graduates. Furthermore, prison guards aren?t saddled with huge debts from student loans; they?re actually paid to attend the state academy.

The only thing government makes are criminals out of innocent people, and corpses out of living human beings. America imprisons more people than any other nation, and spends more money on the military than the rest of the world.

Let us take back the liberty wherewith Christ has made us free.