I support the death penalty. I support it in cases when someone is such a threat to society that it would not be just to force society to pay for their room and board in a jail. I support the death penalty in cases like first degree murder, violent rape, and similar extreme cases of violation of human rights. I don't support the death penalty because criminals deserve to be punished. I support it as a means of protecting society from dangerous criminals. I support it because I find it extremely unjust that society should be forced to pay the upkeep of these people who will never be safe to release into the general public.
I do not support the death penalty for laziness. Right, long ago laziness was the difference between obtaining enough food to eat, or starving to death. Back then the death penalty (by starvation) might have been just for those who were too lazy to pull their share of the weight. That was a law imposed by nature. In some places this natural law still holds sway over humans, but not in the US. According to Wikipedia, only 2-3 percent of the US labor population works in agriculture. "US agriculture has long since passed the point of being able to meet the demand for food in the US population. Much of US agricultural production is now exported to other countries. For example, the United States exports 60 percent of its wheat crop and 30 percent of its soybeans. Agricultural products make up 10 percent of all exported US merchandise." (portaec.net) Forcing people to starve because they are lazy, or because there is not enough work to go around is essentially enforcing the death penalty for laziness. In the case of those who are not working because they cannot find work, but are looking, it is enforcing the death penalty for involuntary laziness. I know of no State in the US that enforces the death penalty for involuntary homicide. Why then is it tolerated for involuntary laziness?
I also do not support the death penalty for those with health problems that prevent them from working, or health problems that cost too much for them to pay for on their pathetically low salary, even though they may work a full 40 hours a week. This goes back to the production issue. The US produces far more than it needs to survive. Doctors might deserve to get paid for their work, but no one deserves to die for their health problems just because they don't work or don't get paid enough. Are health problems really so dangerous to society at large that those who have them deserve the death penalty because they cannot afford to pay for care? Right, I understand that people with health problems might have been an inconvenience that could have substantially harmed the rest of society, long ago. Just like food though, this is not the case in the modern US. The claim that our society cannot afford to give health care to those who cannot afford it is a lie. Humans only need a few things for survival. Specifically, humans need food, water, shelter, and clothing (and not even this in some climates). If US society had to pay for health care for everyone who cannot afford it, which of those four things would we suddenly be unable to provide for everyone? In short, those who need health care, who cannot afford it for whatever reason, do not deserve the death penalty. Again, this especially applies to those who have heath problems involuntarily (voluntary health problems would include those caused be poor choices, like smoking or reckless driving).
The US produces enough for every single citizen to have enough food, water, housing, and clothing. Our current record unemployment is a testament to the fact that the US can produce enough for everyone, even when over half the population is not working. The fact that anyone lives on the streets involuntarily, the fact that anyone in the US is undernourished, and the fact that many people in the US die every day due to lack of medical care, is a testament to the fact that we are no better than uncivilized barbarians (actually, historically barbarians helped their own when needed). The fact that many US citizens take political stands in support of this barbarism is testament that even when the tools to create a Utopia are handed to them on a platter, petty humans will just use them to cruelly rip each other off.
I support the death penalty when a heinous crime has been committed and death is the only truly just punishment. I do not support the barbaric practice of death penalty by inaction when the only crimes are laziness and poor health, at least, not when these things do not pose the slightest threat to the rest of society. Right now, humans are still uncivilized barbarians. Yes, we are barbarians with buildings, computers, cellphone, cars, and all manner of technology, but we are still barbarians. It is time to choose: Are we going to be worthless barbarians forever, or are we going to take the tools we have been given and create a truly civilized Utopia? Are we going to rise from uncivilized barbarians to become the first civilized species on Earth, or are we going stay here, playing in our own filth and killing each other over century old ideals that no longer apply?
Lord Rybec
