We've Been Kippered!

I’m not really sure why people are vilifying companies like this. They are providing a service that helps in many ways, not the least of which is the easing of the over-population in our state prisons. That is something that should be commended, right?

I will be using the term “private prisons” and not using the term “for-profit prisons” and I’ll tell you why: The average person has it in their minds that anything “for profit” is evil.

Why? I have no fucking idea!

Um… everybody understands that we live in a capitalist society, where money is the goal for business.

According to Wikipedia:

“Capitalism is an economic system based on private ownership of the means of production and their operation for profit”

Did you catch those last two words up there??

Technically, it's a mixed economy, with some industries being free markets, and others being controlled by government (a regulated market). But this is true for almost every country. The U.S. is a country with the least government intervention in the developed world, so it is as capitalist as one can get.

According to Wikipedia:

“A free market is a system in which the prices for goods and services are determined by the open market and consumers, in which the laws and forces of supply and demand are free from any intervention by a government, price-setting monopoly, or other authority. It is a result of a need being, then the need being met. A free market contrasts with a regulated market, in which government intervenes in supply and demand through non-market methods such as laws creating barriers to market entry or price fixing. In a free-market economy, prices for goods and services are set freely by the forces of supply and demand and are allowed to reach their point of equilibrium without intervention by government policy, and it typically entails support for highly competitive markets and private ownership of productive enterprises.”

What all of this means is that a need was identified and industrious people stepped in to fill the gap. This is not new. This has been going on for all time. in 1868, convict leases were available where private parties could "rent" convicted people to supplement the workforce. The government would used convicts to perform tasks as well. Slavery may have been abolished, making it illegal to own people, but you could still rent them! 

The Corrections Corporation of America (CCA) was founded in 1984. This is not a new company.

We have all seen too many movies where the evil corporation uses the prisoners for illegal activities or brutalizes them for some demented or sadistic purpose, like Death Race (the 2008 film). Come on, you morons – that was a movie! There are regulations in place to keep things in better shape than they can offer at a lot of the state run prisons.

But I am not here to rant about state prisons vs. private prisons. I'm here to discuss the collective misdirection being perpetrated on us, the U.S. citizen. This picture is simply the latest (and best) tool to use to exemplify it. So I do so as follows:

Business (big or small) is not bad. It is not evil. It is the very thing that allows us to have opportunities for advancement within our society. Capitalism and the free market is what keeps us from being a totally casted culture, doomed to stay within a certain social class.

Then some twat-waffle posts shit like this to try and inspire outrage at the company because they (the company) actually take a stance to keep their business growing. It is a sound fiscal policy to donate to organizations that will help your business prosper.

Nope.

The previously mentioned twat waffle has to look at it and try and proclaim it as an evil or a moral outrage.

The point of all of my bullshit today is to try and get you, my lone reader, to see this for what it is – a red herring.

According to Wikipedia:

“A red herring is something that misleads or distracts from a relevant or important issue.”

Interesting side note on the origin of the term, herring is a fish often smoked and salted in a process called kippering. This process turns the herring a reddish-brown color, and they are referred to as a kipper, or red herring. This process predates refrigeration and, due to that convenience not yet being available, the red herring was extremely pungent, to say the least. Consequently, they were used to create a false trail while training hunting dogs. Put down to intentionally try and misdirect them.

Something is happening over there somewhere while small minds with grand ideals spend time and effort looking for something to be outraged about.

Today it is the fact that private prisons are being run like a business. No shit, fuckface!

Yesterday it was where transgender people pee.

Tomorrow, it will be something equally inane.

Be vigilant and look for the actions of the other hand.