The Chart That Scares The 1% The Most

The chart above shows the correlation of income inequality with prison population. The correlation is tight. The more goodies the greedy top grabs for itself, the more it is forced to terrorize society to keep its wealth. In the 1930s and 40s, society reached a limit in terms of the income inequality it was able to put up with. Right now, the US is seeing historical inequality while at the same time it has more people in prison than any other society in history - both in absolute numbers and on a per-capita basis. Its not a coincidence that both things are happening at the same time and at the same rate, as can be seen in the chart.

There is a limit to what society can take. This chart shows us quite clearly we are reaching that limit.

Hang in there, friends, it won't be long. The sun is setting fast on the empire of swine.

Capitalists have been gripped by 'systemic fear' making them worry not about the day-to-day movements of growth, employment, and profit, but about 'losing their grip'... The high level of force already being applied makes them increasingly fearful of the backlash they are about to receive (think Europe to a lesser extent) and nowhere is this relationship between the wealthy capitalists and social upheaval more evident than in the incredible correlation between the Top 10% share of wealth and the percent of the labor force in prison. In order to have reached the peak level of power it currently enjoys, the ruling class has had to inflict growing threats, sabotage and pain on the underlying population. Although there are no hard and fast rules here, it is doubtful that this massive punishment can be increased much further without highly destabilizing consequences. This crisis is rooted in our past sins and we are unlikely to escape the punishment we justly deserve.

During the 1930s and 1940s, this level proved to be the asymptote of capitalist power: it triggered a systemic crisis, the complete reordering of the U.S. political economy, and a sharp decline in capitalist power, as indicated by the large drop in inequality.

As we can see, since the 1940s this ratio has been tightly and positively correlated with the distributional power of the ruling class:The greater the power indicated by the income share of the top 10 per cent of the population, the larger the dose of violence proxied by the correctional population. Presently, the number of ‘corrected’ adults is equivalent to nearly 5 per cent of the U.S. labour force. This is the largest proportion in the world, as well as in the history of the United States.

More at Source (Zero Hedge)

Thats amazing, I guess the scale on the left hand side is percent of wealth, but what is the percentage on the right hand side representing? The correctional population?

reply to post by Leftist


Great explanation...I finally watched that documentary "THRIVE" and was blown away to pieces and very disturbed afterwards...If I had the $ I would pay the ignorant to watch it.

It would be well to remember that a fair portion of those incarceatedare in prison for the victimless crime of using marijihuana, or growing it etc......
These kinds of repressions of the peoples own ability to choose for themselves are underminments of constitutional democracy, as well as social control devices......
Other crimes that are meaningless except as revenue gaffs, or discrimination thinly veiled, imprison their sahre as well......
In all it apears the really serious crime is dropping and these types are on the increase.

reply to post by michael1983l


Vice-versa, actually. EDIT: You are right.

Originally posted by SarnholeOntarable
reply to post by Leftist

 

Great explanation...I finally watched that documentary "THRIVE" and was blown away to pieces and very disturbed afterwards...If I had the $ I would pay the ignorant to watch it.

The only issue with Thrive is all the pseudoscience.

reply to post by stirling


Right you are, and I bet I'm not the only one on ATS who has been in that statistic.

Originally posted by michael1983l
Thats amazing, I guess the scale on the left hand side is percent of wealth, but what is the percentage on the right hand side representing? The correctional population?

edit on 20-6-2012 by michael1983l because: (no reason given)

That's correct.

The right hand scale is percent of the labor population that is correctional population. I suppose by "correctional" rather than "prison" they are including people on parole, etc. as well as those currently behind bars.

reply to post by Leftist


Woah. That is something I would have never guessed, but does this actually show the rise of prison population due to poverty or is there just more people in prison due to new laws and more commercial mega prisons opening up, therefore more people can be housed. But I guess you can easily argue that poverty breeds crime which is showing I guess.

It looks as if the amount of those incarcerated for minor stuff, grows invertedly to the shrinking of the middle-class' wealth.

If You want to see more irrefutable evidence there is something not entirely right, I suggest You read "The Spirit Level" by Wilson & Pickett. That essay has even more charts that are rather upsetting.
Despite the odd title, it has nóthing to do with some wishy-washy New-Agey thing, but with hárd facts, evidence and éndless, official, statistics.

By the by: Could it also be that, since in the US the prison "business" is "for profit", that the amount of people behind bars for minor stuff is disproportionately high?

There is, apparently, a decrease in violent crime, éven in The US, yet, the prisons have néver been fuller than since the moment it became a "for profit"-game.

What I am seeing in the chart (and several others) is a police-state amount of prisoners. It really doesn't bode well for the US...

An argument can be made that the prison population increases as America becomes more racially "diverse" as well.

The same argument could also show a correlation with dropping out of high school and ending up in prison.

I like freakonomics where they showed an increase in population after higher birth rate in poor families and decreased crime with birth control use.

Has been criticized but one of the more interesting points out there..

Basically stating that kids with no love at home will look elsewhere for acceptance.

reply to post by boncho


Not really a fan of ye olde corporatist who authored Freakanomics. www.salon.com...

But I really think this article sheds light on the reasons why we imprison so many and create/maintain so many unnecessary laws: There's big money to be made.

Let's just see who the top 5 lobbying groups against marijuana legalization are: www.republicreport.org...

Well that was a quick search. Turns out the police, private prison, and prison guard unions are 3 of the top 5 lobbying groups against it.

reply to post by Anonymous404


Whoops.

Hmm.. Thanks for pointing that out. I will have to reevaluate my position on that book and also make a note to look into the source in future reading. Something I normally do.

Correlation is not causation as well, and I should probably review their material again.

reply to post by Leftist


Well done, I appreciate the truth you share with ATS.

One thing I would like people to think about is, if something becomes profitable, such as the private prison system has, that creates incentive to grow that business, right?

Do we want there to be incentive to increase prison populations?

We have too many laws, we have too many laws that used to be misdemeanors being sentenced more harshly. If you care to look at States that have private prisons or lease out their population to corporations for labor, you will notice a huge difference in how crime is punished.

Deleted negativity.

I'm sorry.

UNICOR is owned by the Federal Government.

What Is UNICOR?

Federal Prison Industries (commonly referred to as FPI or by its trade name UNICOR) is a wholly owned, Government corporation established by Congress on June 23, 1934. Its mission is to employ and provide job skills training to the greatest practicable number of inmates confined within the Federal Bureau of Prisons; contribute to the safety and security of our Nation’s Federal correctional facilities by keeping inmates constructively occupied; produce market-priced quality goods and services for sale to the Federal Government; operate in a self-sustaining manner; and minimize FPI’s impact on private business and labor.

UNICOR

UNICOR Federal Prison Industries, Inc.

Originally posted by Anonymous404
reply to post by boncho

 

Not really a fan of ye olde corporatist who authored Freakanomics. www.salon.com...

But I really think this article sheds light on the reasons why we imprison so many and create/maintain so many unnecessary laws: There's big money to be made.

Let's just see who the top 5 lobbying groups against marijuana legalization are: www.republicreport.org...

Well that was a quick search. Turns out the police, private prison, and prison guard unions are 3 of the top 5 lobbying groups against it.

Every time I try to read your link to republic report, the screen goes blank...I really want to read that article and find out the other 2 lobbying groups, could some one tell me?

reply to post by Leftist


Prisons have become nothing more than another capitalist / corporatist wealth aggregating exercise.
There are of course always a few people that need to be separated from society - but this is way beyond ridiculous. It's absolute tyranny.

Not sure what will change it, but it can't go on forever like this.
@OP thanks for that insightful graph.

One more thing - prohibition has been the secondary institution for enforcement of the societal schism between ultra wealthy and the working class. It feeds the prison system and restricts class mobility on the macro scale. Unfettered capitalism is itself the prime progenitor of this neo-feudalist stratification.

Originally posted by Leftist

Originally posted by michael1983l
Thats amazing, I guess the scale on the left hand side is percent of wealth, but what is the percentage on the right hand side representing? The correctional population?

edit on 20-6-2012 by michael1983l because: (no reason given)

That's correct.

The right hand scale is percent of the labor population that is correctional population. I suppose by "correctional" rather than "prison" they are including people on parole, etc. as well as those currently behind bars.

If your on parole you state prison # is still active so YES you would still be counted for if you were on parole.
Your not counted if you discharge your #

Originally posted by xuenchen
UNICOR is owned by the Federal Government.

What Is UNICOR?

Federal Prison Industries (commonly referred to as FPI or by its trade name UNICOR) is a wholly owned, Government corporation established by Congress on June 23, 1934. Its mission is to employ and provide job skills training to the greatest practicable number of inmates confined within the Federal Bureau of Prisons; contribute to the safety and security of our Nation’s Federal correctional facilities by keeping inmates constructively occupied; produce market-priced quality goods and services for sale to the Federal Government; operate in a self-sustaining manner; and minimize FPI’s impact on private business and labor.

UNICOR

UNICOR Federal Prison Industries, Inc.

Prison as business ?
No wonder police is so brutal these days, no wonder such tight observation on public, no wonder all those CCTV monitoring. Its a business, and business need to make money, cheaply of course. Who care about those without education, as long they can make stuff, we'll keep it, else, thrown it to the test bed for new drugs, who cares anyway.

Reasons why America should change to socialist.

As long as I can put up what ever scales I want, on a chart...I can make anything correlate.

Where are the data sets that this chart came from?