One has to differentiate between Christian influence and general thinking. "Do good things" is common sense but Christian theology has opinion on what is good and bad and it matters at a subtle level.
For example as a Hindu when my kid went to a missionary school they would try to portray polytheism as bad and temporary tattoos as evil.
It is a collision of a centralized top down hierarchical system designed by people with no skin in the game v/s highly decentralized and evolving networked system with lots of people with skin in the game. Former are destined to be sore losers.
I hate bike riders. Sharing road etc. is fine but it is irresponsible for bikers to ride on the road and expect car drivers to be watchful. If there is an accident not only the biker and his family is in trouble but the driver too.
It is much better to keep a separate bike lanes or let bikers ride on pavement. Where either things are not possible have some mechanism for to detect the bikers and alert the cars through flashing lights or something.
Biking is fine in a park or for kids. There is no sense in riding bike in the middle of a rush traffic.
That is a rational fear. What you are describing is a normal fear. In my caseit would be more of a phobia where even when I am perfectly safe I would sweat, heartbeat would increase and I might get into a panic attack as suck.
> Prison industrial complex also lobbies the government to keep the War on Drugs going because a reform there also would directly cut profits for them.
All that system is made possible by American society who craps its pants over every minor thing. I will not blame profit seeking companies here but the people.
> It really doesn't seem very many steps above slavery.
If I ever go through that system there is no way in hell I am coming out of the prison "reformed". Today when I look at a young kid I feel compassion and I will help the kid in need. After coming out of an US Prison I am likely to see everyone else as "these people were responsible for putting me through hell". That lack of compassion is way more worse.
I am not surprised that so many people turn out to be repeat offenders.
It surprises me that US government has not yet started harvesting organs of the prisoners. Why does someone who has been sentenced for 20 years in prison need his extra kidney for ?
> 30% of California forest firefighters are prisoners .. The state argued against parole credit for these prisoners as it would draw down the labor force and lead to depletion of the firefighter force.
I guess if some of them die fighting fire we as a society are told to think "good riddance".
Lack of compassion for those wronged by the state is a Achilles heel of US civilization. It is going to cause a damage down further as people's respect for law erodes over time.
> What about... offering college for free like the rest of the modern world?
Free only means someone else pays for it. It is still a bad deal if you make someone else pay horrendous amount of money for a worthless degree.
> What about as a society/culture you start telling people that the country should offer education for free instead of not getting educated?
What you are saying is that vast majority of the people who themselves have not gone to college should be FORCED to pay for someone else's degree in French Literature ?
Politicians are merely using Terrorism is an excuse to make their job easy while making out life miserable. This is indeed tyranny and totally independent of which party is in power. Only if people could unite.
I am only explaining the facts. Forced paternity leave takes out some amount of labor from market increasing prices for everyone else for those services.
For example USA does not have government mandated paternity leave and hence a lot of people value that 3 month salary over staying at home without pay. This means the McDonald on corner is able to have necessary staff and the Comcast technician is able to come to your house on a Saturday.
People leaving jerk boss is not always a good thing because Jerk is a value between 0 to 1. UBI simply tilts it in employees favor which is exactly same as against society's benefit.
Isn't it the same company that comited a fraud by selling products that weighed less than what they were charged for ?