The Prisoner’s Dilemma

Flopping Aces ^ | 09-03-12 | Brother Bob

[Starman417]

"This is your last day in jail. You've served the time that you owe to the state for your crimes and you're now free to go."

"Um, what if I don't want to go?"

"In all of the years I've been working here I've never heard that one before. Why on Earth would you want to stay in prison?"

"Are you kidding me? Life in here is great! The government pays for my housing, it feeds me; it even pays for my health care! Sure I have to give up a great deal of freedom, but if I leave here I have to get a job and produce something useful enough to society to earn a paycheck. I don't want to be put back in the chains of the responsibility of having to show up in a certain place when and where someone tells me to."

"But that's a two way street. Yes, we pay for your room and board here, but do you really like only having a small cell to yourself? Do you really like the food in here? Yes, you have free health care but your care and all of the other prisoners' care falls under our budget. You may not get to see a doctor as quickly as you might like and if a treatment is outside of our budget you won't get it, either. While being on the outside does mean that you have certain responsibilities, those responsibilities offer you the freedom to walk whatever path you want. If you don't want to work hard you can find a place and the means to live cheaply. If you want more out of life you can choose to work harder, or learn a trade that pays more. If you don't like living in a small apartment in a dangerous neighborhood you can choose to work harder, and earn the income to improve your lot in life. In here there is no income inequality, but that only is achieved by putting limits on success, not improving opportunity for the bottom. Wouldn't you prefer to sacrifice guaranteed mediocrity for the chance at living a fulfilling life?"

"You obviously don't understand the new enlightened view of what human rights entail . It should be a human rights guarantee that a nation as wealthy as ours can provide to feed and house its poorest citizens."

"Being guaranteed something doesn't mean that you're going to get what you want. Having someone guarantee to pay for your health care is not the same as actually seeing a doctor. Being guaranteed housing could have you living in dangerous conditions, like people who have followed some notorious slum lords. And of course, you are ignoring the liberty of the person whose money has to be confiscated to pay for something that you don't want to pay for."

"Your unwillingness to have these items provided for me shows that you are nothing more than a pro-starvation and pro-homelessness extremist."

"Let me ask you a question. If these positions are extremist what happens if everybody adopts your philosophy? If we have everybody holding their hands out for free things but nobody left willing to pay for them then society collapses. What happens if everyone follows your lead?"

"Stop presenting me with inconvenient truths! Do I have to go commit another felony or are you going to lock me back up?'

Calling an upcoming presidential election the most important in our times has become a cliche, but this time I agree with it. The fact that the current election is expected to be close is disturbing at best, and terrifying at worst. The same people who decried George W. Bush's economy and in 2004 were asking if you're better off than you were four years ago then are now willing to overlook the fact that the economy is in far worse shape than it was during the Bush presidency.

[The Working Man]

It’s an interesting article. I don’t work in the corrections field at all but I have heard that there are some prisoners that have been in so long that they are totally “institutionalized” meaning that they are psychologically incapable of living outside of the institutions environment.

The end result is that they become permanent “trustees” and they are put on welfare and the welfare payments pay for them to live inside the institution.

Now once again I DO NOT know if this is true, I’ve just heard about it from others who say it is.

[Dilbert San Diego]

I have heard about problems releasing sex offenders, in that, sex offenders are limited to where they can live. I heard once about a sex offender being released, but his hometown didn’t want him back. He lived for a time in a trailer on the prison grounds, technically not a prisoner, but still on the premises.

[LukeL]

I have said that if I was homeless and had no family or friends I would rob a bank just to land in prison where I would no longer have any worries.

[Jack Hydrazine]

Ed McDonnough: You mean you busted out of jail.

Evelle: No, ma'am. We released ourselves on our own recognizance.

Gale: What Evelle here is trying to say is that we felt that the institution no longer had anything to offer us.

[Jack Hydrazine]

Ed McDonnough: You mean you busted out of jail.

Evelle: No, ma'am. We released ourselves on our own recognizance.

Gale: What Evelle here is trying to say is that we felt that the institution no longer had anything to offer us. -Raising Arizona (1987)

[Jack Hydrazine]

Last part of movie synopsis:

http://www.tigersweat.com/movies/arizona/
Ed and Hi, after getting rid of Smalls, decide to return the child to his rightful parents. Gale and Evelle realize that prison isn’t such a bad place after all so they sneak themselves back in.