this post was submitted on 09 Oct 2023
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politics

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[–] [email protected] 69 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (4 children)

It costs less in taxes to take a child out of poverty than to put them in prison as an adult.

Additionally, taking children out of poverty improves the tax contributions they and their own children will make more than it costs.

In other words, your taxes aren't going to just them but is an investment in us all.

And you're making the same argument people without kids sometimes make about education, why should I pay for public schools, I don't have kids, I don't benefit. But you do, everytime a cashier counts change, everytime you don't get robbed because a kid had an opportunity to come out of poverty, everytime you have an intelligent conversation with a neighbor.

We live in a society. If you don't want to be part of our society, feel free to move someplace without taxes.

[–] [email protected] 30 points 1 year ago (1 children)

The person wants to punish others. It’s not actually about the cost.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 year ago

And this is why I left lolitarian after about a month. Once you start looking at the numbers of how much crime costs vs how little after school programs cost it is a no brainier. If someone gets convicted of a felony from the pure cold government accounting they are a net loss. There is almost zero chance that the government will make back what was spent on them.

It just is so much easier to be proactive vs reactive. We know the statistics, we know that a dollar spent on such and such program removes multiple times future costs.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Source on the costs? (I'm not doubting what you say is true, I would just like to know where you get your data).

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Search Incarceration vs. Education.

It's easy to extrapolate just from the headlines but I'm sure if you dig into the articles you'll find the data you are asking for.

My source is lived experience and human services courses. So I don't have a study to point too.

But there are studies and data on this is abundant.

One ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure and all of that.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (2 children)

But there are studies and data on this is abundant.

And you couldn't find one?

It’s easy to extrapolate just from the headlines

Clickbait articles are everywhere. NEVER trust the headlines.

I'm still not doubting what you say is true -- I just want to know what studies prove it, simply because I do not possess the requisite knowledge to assume "truthiness" of said articles if I were to even find them. My area of expertise is very far from anything related to human services.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

Here's a NAACP report. Prison is expensive because all of that security is expensive. Add onto that medical care, especially older inmates with long bids cost a lot. It's cheaper to invest in education. High school drop outs, black or white, are more likely to be incarcerated. Reducing high school drop out rates is something doable and it would save money.

https://www.prisonpolicy.org/scans/naacp/misplaced_priorities.pdf

Also, investing in education improves GDP. People in higher income brackets also pay more taxes. The GDP increase for the US if we ensured every child access to education is 16% per year for the next 80 years.

Here's that study. That's the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development. OCED.

https://www.oecd.org/education/universal-basic-skills-9789264234833-en.htm

[–] [email protected] 0 points 1 year ago

I can find something for you. Just was busy when I replied earlier and finding good studies to share that aren't behind a paywall takes time.

Let me burn one and do a few other things. Then I'll see if I can dig something up for you.