Scarcity, Opportunity Cost and Competition impact our decision-making moment to moment. This makes economics the basis of life as we know it, after God. Nothing that people value is free, someone pays the cost. To gain that thing of value, scarce resources are given up and cannot be given up again for a different thing of value. And we all are competing to capture those scarce resources.
Monday, December 28, 2015
Not having capital punishment is a rich society's luxury. They used to just kill people out of hand.
Capitol punishment is often seen as a cheaper alternative than life in prison, but with today's seemingly unlimited appeals process the death penalty can get expensive quickly. The actual act of killing a death row inmate is cheap, according to the state of Texas their drug cocktail costs only $83 per dose. The court costs however is where capitol punishment gets expensive. More often than not the cost of a capitol case is far more expensive than one where only life without parole is possible. According to a federal government report from 2010 the federal government on average spends almost 8 times more money on each death penalty case than non death penalty cases heard in the federal court system. Back in the day when all was needed for an execution was a conviction from a jury and the local hangman's gallows, the death penalty was swift and efficient, but in the modern day of endless appeals marginal cost far exceeds marginal benefit for federal state and local governments.
The death penalty was eliminated from most court systems in the United States because it was considered cruel and unusual punishment. Since when is death cruel and unusual, it happens to everyone sooner or later. In 1958, the Supreme Court declared that the Eighth Amendment meant that an "evolving standard of decency that marked the progress of a maturing society." So the Supreme Court declared that the United States had reached its point where the “standard of decency” and had eliminated the need for the death penalty. While the cost for Texas’s death penalty may be only $83, and a boatload for court payments. Back in the “good ole days” when the death penalty consisted of firing squads and gallows, the price was significantly cheaper. So in an economist’s point of view, is it cheaper to send a person to prison for the rest of their life, where they have to be fed three meals a day, provided clothing, a bed, entertainment, and guarded. It is far cheaper to deal out the capital punishment than to send a person to prison for life where they live in relative freedom and have nothing required upon them. I am not saying that capital punishment is a better option for all crimes, but it should still be an option. So, does the marginal cost really exceed the benefit when we are talking price? Does the cost of the courts and the actual punishment really cost less than providing someone everything they need for the rest of their life?
Share your unique economics experiences. What did you have to give up to gain that which at the moment seemed so necessary to you? Imperfect information spanked you and now diminishing marginal utility smacks you upside the head, eh?
Capitol punishment is often seen as a cheaper alternative than life in prison, but with today's seemingly unlimited appeals process the death penalty can get expensive quickly. The actual act of killing a death row inmate is cheap, according to the state of Texas their drug cocktail costs only $83 per dose. The court costs however is where capitol punishment gets expensive. More often than not the cost of a capitol case is far more expensive than one where only life without parole is possible. According to a federal government report from 2010 the federal government on average spends almost 8 times more money on each death penalty case than non death penalty cases heard in the federal court system. Back in the day when all was needed for an execution was a conviction from a jury and the local hangman's gallows, the death penalty was swift and efficient, but in the modern day of endless appeals marginal cost far exceeds marginal benefit for federal state and local governments.
ReplyDeleteThe death penalty was eliminated from most court systems in the United States because it was considered cruel and unusual punishment. Since when is death cruel and unusual, it happens to everyone sooner or later. In 1958, the Supreme Court declared that the Eighth Amendment meant that an "evolving standard of decency that marked the progress of a maturing society." So the Supreme Court declared that the United States had reached its point where the “standard of decency” and had eliminated the need for the death penalty. While the cost for Texas’s death penalty may be only $83, and a boatload for court payments. Back in the “good ole days” when the death penalty consisted of firing squads and gallows, the price was significantly cheaper. So in an economist’s point of view, is it cheaper to send a person to prison for the rest of their life, where they have to be fed three meals a day, provided clothing, a bed, entertainment, and guarded. It is far cheaper to deal out the capital punishment than to send a person to prison for life where they live in relative freedom and have nothing required upon them. I am not saying that capital punishment is a better option for all crimes, but it should still be an option. So, does the marginal cost really exceed the benefit when we are talking price? Does the cost of the courts and the actual punishment really cost less than providing someone everything they need for the rest of their life?
ReplyDeletehttp://criminal.findlaw.com/criminal-procedure/death-penalty-challenges.html