>>>>>>>>SNIP
>>>>>>>>>easy getting benefit, as soon as you're unemployed, but it's no fortune - c £60 per week. And, as in my case, and thanks to Bill Clinton's initiatives, the "job-seekers' allowance" only runs for 6 months. Social security payments, say for unemployed families, esp. with kids, can run indefinitely (like your Americans "on welfare").
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>What did Bill Clinton have to do with England's policies?
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>Didn't he introduce welfare benefits that stopped after 6 months, thus forcing people into work? Maybe I recall incorrectly.
>>>>>>
>>>>>>Not in England.
>>>>>
>>>>>Well DUH-UH! Of course not. But our govt. copied his initiative. I wish they'd copy the "3 strikes and out" policy too.
>>>>
>>>>It sounds appealing but has at times been an illustration of the law of unintended consequences. It needs to be tweaked so the third strike specifies serious crimes, not relatively minor ones like stealing videos (as happened in one notorious case).
>>>
>>>Though you do have wonder about the impulse control of somebody with 2 strikes when they stole the videos. Maybe taking someone that stupid or ungoverned off the street permanently isn't such a bad idea.
>>
>>No. A life sentence for a misdemeanor (or even 3 of them) is ridiculous. Who are we, Inspector Javert?
>
>My point is that someone knowing that a third strike puts them inside for good and still choosing to do something that would be a third strike kind of defines the very kind of person you don't want out on the streets. Whether it's bad judgment, bad impulse control or terminal stupidity - no good can come of it. <s>

If the legal system had any logic at all, we wouldn't have murderers on the street who've only killed once while thieves are in for life because they've stolen three times.