Joe Bageant: Old Dogs and Hard Time

Joe Bageant: Old Dogs and Hard Time: "Governments and states exist to control people, and for no other reason. If justice is achieved somewhere in the process, it's an added bonus. But control above all else is necessary for modern civilization to exist. Population grows by the minute, increasing social pressure on humanity. More rules and more control are required to keep order. Order is defined as the way we think others should behave -- or imagine them to misbehave. We support the state's police machinery and massive incarceration of our fellow citizens, so long as they are being imprisoned for the right reasons. They should pay. Every action in a capitalist world must produce money. So they should pay in cash."