Well, if we’re talking about relative value to society of various people, maybe we should adopt a more efficient system than just executing random folks who commit crimes beyond certain arbitrary thresholds of number or severity. After all the main objective is to prevent these most heinous crimes from happening, right? Under the current system, these punishments all lock the barn door after the horse has bolted. So here’s my modest, alternative proposal:
Everyone, from birth, gets scored on their societal value via a points system, with positive and negative scores based on certain critical actions during their lives. For example (points scores are suggestions only):
Being born in the first place: 10 points
One parent absent (except for accidental death): -2 points
Both parents absent (as above): -4 points
School incidents: truancy, detention and the like: -1 point each occurrence
Youth gang member: -5 points
Join the Boy (or Girl) Scouts: 2 points
Kill a domestic pet for no good reason: -2 points
Successful graduation from a given level of schooling: 5 for elementary, 10 for high school, 10 for two-year college, 20 for bachelor’s degree, etc.
Military service: 10 points for one enlistment cycle, 5 for serving a drafted cycle, 2 bonus points for each re-enlistment.
Income taxes: 2 points for each thousand dollars paid out each year
Participation in a (legal) business: 2 points for each $500,000 in revenue (or, say, 100 employees), or a weighted scoring system for different types of jobs deemed to be of greater or lesser value to society
Being homeless: -5 points for each year spent on the street
Traffic offences: -1 to -3 points each occurrence, depending on severity
DWI, domestic violence: -5 points
Non-violent crimes such as drug usage offenses, petty theft, etc.: -5 points each occurrence
Robbery, grand theft, embezzlement, drug trafficking: -10 points for each $10,000 in lost value, for each occurrence
Violent crime not resulting in death: -25 point each occurrence
Sexual assaults on adults: -40 points each occurrence
Murder, child molestation (since everyone seems to think these are exactly equivalent): -50 points each occurrence
Participated in genocide: -100 points
If at any point, if one’s personal score drops below zero for more than one year, or if ever hits -20, off with their head.
For me, this system has many advantages. Just like life, it ishould be hard to gain positive points, easy to get negative points. it allows us to factor to potnetial good that someone has done in their life, against the bad. lastly, we all know that many, if not most, bad people are bad in lots of ways, so this system, if weighted properly, could help weed out the bad apples before they they commit truly awful crimes.
As we are a compassionate people, we will allow temporary excursions below zero, but -20 is a hard limit: hit rock bottom and you’re goin’ home to Jesus.
Oh, and look at all the jobs that would be created to keep track of all these statistics.
There. Problem solved.
Yeah, tongue’s mostly in the cheekular region.