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Americans famously overspent during the 1990s and early '00s. It's a familiar story: we mortgaged oversized homes to buy colossal TVs. But you may have heard less about another commodity we binged on: justice. Americans indulged in an enormous criminal-justice spending spree during the past 25 years, locking up more and more offenders (particularly for drug-related crimes) for longer and longer sentences. Total spending on incarceration rose from $39 per U.S. resident in 1982 to $210 per resident in 2006, according to the most recent figures from the Justice Department. We now spend $62 billion a year...
...politics of early release are delicate. The prison boom of the past 25 years benefited a great many politicians who could claim to be tough on crime. One can easily imagine the political ads that will air in the next cycle in attempts to defeat elected officials who vote not only to set prisoners free but also to spend more on social services for them...
...always interested me how modern Germany is dealing with its past. It seems to me that it is not learning the lessons of history. If Germany was to learn from the past instead of trying to forget it, the country would surely be in a far better position. It is widely reported that the far right is on the rise in Europe. By banning these organizations we only add fuel to their fire and, more worryingly, force them underground. Banning reprints of Nazi books only restricts learning about past horrors and is tantamount to Nazi book-burning. Banning gnomes...
...tried or punished. In many cases they simply returned to their normal lives and professions in German society. Hence it is not surprising that the hunt for these by now aging war criminals still goes on today. That's why Germany's "constant struggle to distance itself from its past" might mean it is doomed never to escape it. Roger Jansoone, ICHTEGEM, BELGIUM...
...year-old living in Germany, I know firsthand what it is like to grow up in a country shaped by past crimes. In Germany, it is hard to know where to draw the line between patriotism and extreme nationalism. Few of my generation dare to be proud of our country. Of course Germany under Hitler committed terrible crimes, and of course they should never be committed again, but how can the children of today be expected to live with the burden of these crimes committed 60 years ago? It is not that "younger Germans ... are less angst-ridden about their...