Ep. 4: Problems, Promises and Prison

Politicians over promise on many things, nothing new there. Recently, I've heard a few candidates for the presidency have said they plan on reducing the prison population by 50% or more. 

Fun fact that I looked up just for you: There are currently between 2-2.5 million people currently in federal and state prisons and jails. 

Is that number too high? What should the number be? 0?

If these politicians free 1 million, who will they be? 

I tried to find hard numbers on violent vs. non-violent criminals and depending on the political views of the sources, results varied a ton. 

Main issue though for the podcast really concerned:

1) When somebody want to solve a problem, ask if it really is a problem to begin with

2) If it is a problem ask a follow up question like, "okay, how do you plan of tackling the issue with besides a willingness and motivation, like really?" 

3) Skepticism doesn't make you a pessimist. If anything it might help you and the miracle worker actually solve the problem once a coherent plan is made. 

Here are the things I mentioned:

Debate between Heather Mac Donald and Thaddeus Russell: HERE

Planet Money podcast about Japans worker issues: HERE 

Totally misspoke as well. The Japan issue was a worker shortage. Just listen to the planet money thing. It's interesting. 

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