The conservative jobs program: become a criminal
by digby
They're just not leaving people any alternatives:
If you are poor, live in Louisiana, and have the audacity ask someone else for help, be prepared to spend up to six months in jail.
A new bill to outlaw panhandling is quickly moving its way through the Louisiana legislature. HB 1158 would criminalize solicitation, making it a misdemeanor punishable with a maximum fine of $200 and up to six months in jail. The bill is targeted not just at panhandlers, but hitchhikers and those engaged in prostitution as well.
If they decide to apply this to email solicitations for money I might be inclined to support it.
Obviously, this is nuts. There is such a thing as free speech. In fact, the Supreme Court has gone so far as to say that money itself is a form of speech. So how in the world can it be constitutional to make it illegal to ask for money? It's the basis of our entire system!
This is also yet another example of the conservatives promoting their jobs program: become a thief or a prostitute. With their cuts to unemployment insurance, food stamps, their opposition to any kind of subsidized health care and now even banning begging in the streets, they are literally leaving these people no alternative but to become criminals.
The upside is that the police and prison industrial complex will be extremely well compensated by the taxpayers and it will add up to a hell of lot more money than a couple of bucks in a tin can. But if they play their cards right, Louisiana will eventually get prison slave labor fully legalized and they'll be able to "give back."
And then their long lost world will be returned to them.
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