My home state of New Jersey has shut down due to a budget crisis. I could balance the budget overnight with one act: abolishing all consensual crimes. How much money do we spend incarcerating drug offenders? How much money is spent catching prostitutes and their johns? Does New Jersey have any state obscenity laws we spend money enforcing? I’ll bet that if consensual crimes were done away with, with virtue being its own reward and vice being its own punishment (as is, if you choose to shoot your veins up with heroin, don’t expect me to pay taxes for your hospital bill), the budget would not only be balanced, there would be a surplus.
Just a thought.
# posted by Dan @ 3:25 PM
