Tuesday, December 05, 2006

Health and Prisons

USA Today had an article today on the rankings of the states on their residents' health status. MN on the top as usual. The interesting thing to me was here, where you can find the report and the actual rankings of all the states. Compare the rankings to any available ranking of states by incarceration rate. I swear I'm not making a judgment about the two; in democracies, you get what you vote for. But let’s make clear--where you spend your money tells what your priorities are, and the top incarceration states have plainly decided that it is smarter to keep people locked up than healthy. Make up your own mind what history will say about that, and how many solid, long-term econ investment decisions will be made to move to or stay in those states when companies have to consider costs of employees. The people in those states have been told and they've chosen their path. Like I said. Democracy rules.

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