You Be the Judge

[Fifty]

The obvious disanalogy here is that this guy is NOT a door greeter, he was an executive. The fact that he was an executive and not a door greeter meant that he was a better capitalist and thus a smarter and better person. All other things being equal, a better person should receive a lighter sentence than a worse person. It isn't in our rational self-interest to hold this guy behind bars, because it will be difficult for him to help the economy through his free market wizardry from jail (at best he would end up becoming a prison cigarette tycoon, which doesn't help our economy much). Door greeters, on the other hand, are more poor and thus lazy and irresponsible. Their rotting in jail is of no consequence, and in fact would probably cost less because it would take them off welfare and all the other government programs that poor people leech from.

Also try to keep in mind that lower level employees tend to be minorities, and minorities tend to commit more crime and thus are worse than white people.

Your analogy is bogus, Jolly, and the fact of the matter is that this just sounds like more bleeding-heart liberal, pie-in-the-sky whining.

 

[JollyRoger]

It isn't in our rational self-interest to hold this guy behind bars, because it will be difficult for him to help the economy through his free market wizardry from jail (at best he would end up becoming a prison cigarette tycoon, which doesn't help our economy much).

I think you may be on the right track with the rational self-interest thing. White collar criminal defendants tend to pay their lawyers more, in full, and on time. He should be not be incarcerated so that he can commit more crimes so that criminal defense lawyers are not deprived of a prime repeat customer. Keep the trial lawyers busy defending corporate goons instead of suing them.

Your analogy is bogus, Jolly, and the fact of the matter is that this just sounds like more bleeding-heart liberal, pie-in-the-sky whining.

Just because I see the problem of deduction from what the sentence should be doesn't make it bleeding heart liberal, pie-in-the-sky whining. I may whine that some people believe there is pie in the sky, but my heart bleeds in the same red-white-and-blue combination of my less liberal countrymen.