REJUVENATION & RELATIONSHIPS: Proposed Solution

This blog link covers three critical topics in one: ownership of our personal physical property, respect for productive relationships that support the social fabric, and rejuvenation of incarcerated felons so they can become productive, law abiding, and taxpaying contributors versus tax consumers.

• People’s right to personal property: the essence of any life is the ability to control its destiny free from outside power.  Government interference in private property interferes with the sacred social contract a free people have equal protection to their life, liberty, and personal property under the law.  This right extends to one’s personal property, their body.  On a personal level, people are free to make their own decisions.  At the same time, the fetus must gain legal rights at some stage of development, perhaps when the fetus has developed all rudimentary biological functions of a human (eg 9-12 weeks).  The right to choose and right to life are individual equal rights as well as 14th Amendment equal protection matters that deserve federal legislative solutions as opposed to current practice of state law experimentation, lawsuits, and inevitably Supreme Court decisions creating de facto federal laws. (OS post: Proposed federal laws: abortion/right to life, gay marriage, and illegal immigration)Historical Gallup polls do show a consistent 63% of Americans believe 2nd-term or later abortion should be illegal. Roughly 63% believe first term abortion should be legal.  Historical Gallup polls on Abortion. A just society should unequivocally also support the unborn’s right to life by strongly supporting adoption and ensuring efficiently run adoption programs.  People can decide if they wish their government to publicly fund abortion clinics or permit interested private parties to do so.  Health care institutions are free to decide the health care services they wish to provide to customers as well as the health care benefits they provide to their employees. Patients and employees are free to decide if the health care service and/or employer benefit offering is satisfactory.
• Civil Unions: Marriage is a holy sacrament governed by private religious institutions.  Therefore, these institutions have the power to confer the sacrament of marriage to heterosexual or homosexual couples based on their own church practice.  Moreover, sexual preference is also a private matter where the state has no domain.   Same sex couples should therefore have the same legal rights as heterosexual couples such as inheritance/estate planning, divorce proceedings, child custody, benefit eligibility, etc.  Once again, same sex couples have an equal right to enjoy the legal rights of marriage as heterosexual couples, which calls for a federal gay marriage law.
• Rejuvenating Convicted Felons: ‘Compassion to Others Act’ Annual Prison Costs/Inmate Close to US Median Household Income  In California, the annual inmate cost is $47,000/year versus $49,000 median household income.  There are approximately 1.6 million Americans incarcerated in federal or state prisons in 2011 according to the US government. 2011 US Prison Population.  As U.S. population grows, the prison population will likely grow under current law and the prison baby-boomers will cost more and more.  On the flip side, there are many reformed and freed former felons who are working, paying taxes and abiding the law.  Great nations and people are built on forgiveness as people seek a better life and rehabilitate themselves.1.  Vocational training for first-time convicted felons after meaningful term:  Out of enlightened economic self-interest, citizens should be motivated to rehabilitate first time felons with vocational training programs so they can become productive contributors in society versus significant tax consumers.  Look at the highly successful Twin Cities RISE program in which the State of Minnesota provides pay for performance funding tied to successful job placement and ongoing job retention for persons formerly on state welfare rolls.  Great public-private partnership we should emulate across the country.  Twin Cities RISE public-private partnership

  2. Hockey stick penal code:  Governments should consider a ‘hockey stick’ penalty curve where criminals have the chance to rehabilitate themselves for lesser crimes, but be sure to pay the ultimate price for premeditated and heinous crimes that take the lives of others.  Repeat offenders increasingly lose their right for rehabilitation and must accept prison as a way of life.  We need a penal code commensurate with the magnitude of the crime as well as a hyper-efficient judicial process that arrives at final penalty as judiciously as possible.

Proposed Solutions hot links: Work; Home; Education; Retirement; Health Care; Immigration; Rejuvenation & Relationships