From: J. R. Molloy (jr@shasta.com)
Date: Thu Sep 23 1999 - 12:17:24 MDT
>While on the
>economic side of things they are fairly relaxed and open
>I think things are much more regulated in terms of personal
>freedoms (driving a car, littering, drugs, pornography, etc.).
Right, they have freedom where it really counts: economics.
>And yet there is relatively little violence in Singapore to the
>best of my knowledge. Why? This is also generally true I
>believe for Japan. [While you might make the "martial law"
>case for Singapore, I doubt you can make it for Japan.] IMO,
>one could begin to make a case for either (a) genetics; or
>(b) cultural values as being the determining factors in expressions
>of violence. I believe that the three countries with the largest per
>capita prison populations are the U.S., China and Russia. Given the
>diversity of governments in these countries, it seems difficult to pin
>the violence card on the government. I will admit however that
>teasing apart per-capita prison populations is probably a poor
>approach due to the problems of political prisoners and really
>stupid (drug) laws.
Again, the US has the kind of freedom that counts: economic freedom.
This archive was generated by hypermail 2.1.5 : Fri Nov 01 2002 - 15:05:15 MST