Free Markets and Prisons

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You take care of Sweden, and we'll take care of the U.S.

[Il_Mostro]

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You take care of Sweden, and we'll take care of the U.S.

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I can imagine a few of your fellow citizens also having some problems with your idea.

[BluffTHIS!]

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You take care of Sweden, and we'll take care of the U.S.

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I can imagine a few of your fellow citizens also having some problems with your idea.

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I always find it so heart-warming that the euros are so concerned about our domestic policies and welfare. Must be that sense of noblesse oblige.

[tylerdurden]

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And I think PVN would have to agree that prison in itself is contrary to a state-free system.

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I was coming to this point eventually. It seems that you've already realized that many of the problems you are bringing up in your objection to private prisons are just as applicable (if not moreso) to state prisions.

[sam h]

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Fair enough. "Sectors of human interaction" is a pretty large field.

I'll counter with this though: in the vast majority of the "sectors of human interaction" free markets do lead to increased efficiency, and if one were to propose that a specific sector was the exception, they should provide evidence to the point.

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I agree that marketizing many economic sectors has proven to have substantial benefits. And as I said in another post, I don't know enough about the experiences with private prisons to say either way. But I do think that when it comes to core institutions of a society, like the penal or educational systems, it is folly to assume a priori that marketization will provide a more effective solution just because some abstract economic model says it is so. You shouldn't assume anything, and you should just evaluate the empirical evidence. So yeah, evidence should be provided on both sides.

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it is folly to assume a priori that marketization will provide a more effective solution just because some abstract economic model says it is so. You shouldn't assume anything, and you should just evaluate the empirical evidence. So yeah, evidence should be provided on both sides.

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I dont think the Austrian school of economics contains any abstract economic models, but only what appears to be irrefutable logic, which would be applied in these cases.