How do you pay for an expensive overseas war and bring value back to a falling dollar? Simple. You reduce your countries infrastructures costs, add workers to the populace to increase gross national product, create a livable wage for those same workers for taxable income, and create a high demand product to encourage the citizenry to purchase taxable goods. Personally I would add impeach a president to the list.
These things are coming! (well…maybe not the impeachment) And your politicians have already begun the game of wag the dog to get you to accept the reduced infrastructure costs, new workers, different tax structure, and focus on purchasing a highly taxable product. The spin war is on because it is going to be a vicious one and a very hard sell because the government has been selling you a different bill of goods for almost 50 years. See, the reduced infrastructures cost will come by releasing roughly 800,000 inmates from prison.
…would save taxpayers an estimated $20 billion per year…[Source, Unlocking America: Why and How to Reduce America’s Prison Population, page 7]
It is these same 800,000 inmates who will be the new workers adding to the GNP which means these 800,000 people would be producing taxable income.
What of the product? The product must be inexpensive to produce otherwise the savings from releasing the prisoners is negated. Ideally the product should already exist and be high demand with the general populace. The United States has just such a product. It is a product that no one uses yet you cannot swing a stick in a crowd without hitting someone who does use it. The product is marijuana. No one admits to using it yet it seems like everyone around you uses it socially or medicinally from time to time. Even our presidents use it! They just don’t inhale.
My prediction is that in the next decade we will see significant pressure by politicians to encourage legalization of marijuana for all the reasons stated above plus more. By encouraging the use of hemp for cloth, paper, ropes, and so many other uses, we will make better use of the land with higgher quality products (see 200 year old hemp nightgown looks like new). Watch the news. California will lead followed by Colorado and Nevada. Tennessee will follow closely since TN produces quite a lot of crops. Mark my word. As soon as the government can deprogram society from the believe that marijuana is bad (remember, marijuana was lobbied into illegality by the paper companies – apparently it is supposed to do less harm to the body than drinking alcohol), you will see marijuana sold either over the drug store counters or beside the cigarettes in the grocery stores.
Oh, if I had a dime for every time I heard this scenario, I would be a rich man! Stories of Phillip Morris holding fallow fields awaiting this legislature has been floating around since the 70’s (end of ‘Nam?)
The part of the equation this logic misses is that there is “Big Buck” and money in the “War on Drugs.” That war is not only about the drugs that really are dangerous (i.e. Acid, Opium, etc) but just as much about the “Dime Bag” which due to low cost, continues in high volumes so it remains visible to communities all over the country (not to mention the faux claim of it being a “gateway” drug).
The government can not afford, and the companies that profit from that “war” will lobby long and hard (and with lots of cash) to keep pot on the dangerous list so they can keep up their profits.
[…] make you hallucinate (what are the schools teaching these kids! Oh right, Newspeak). I had to rant my belief that we will pay for an illegal war by 1) reducing government infrastructure costs (ie. release 800,000 prisoners), 2) increase gross […]