>>There is also the security valve of small wars to keep the # of nasties down
LOL. Except that crackheads tend not to enlist. Bring back the draft? Sheesh, they still have compulsory service for males in Switzerland with the lowest teen pregnancy rate. ;-)
"... They ne'er cared for us
yet: suffer us to famish, and their store-houses
crammed with grain; make edicts for usury, to
support usurers; repeal daily any wholesome act
established against the rich, and provide more
piercing statutes daily, to chain up and restrain
the poor. If the wars eat us not up, they will; and
there's all the love they bear us."
-- Shakespeare: Coriolanus, Act 1, scene 1