>>How to reduce father-absence? Maybe "wave a magic wand" to bring back blue collar jobs even if only for one more generation before robots, so young men regain a sense of pride and participation in social compact. "Teach them to fish" and then help them lift promising kids out of the poverty trap. There's precedent: in living memory Northern Ireland was a hot-bed of terrorism and sectarian violence that was overturned in less than a generation by jobs and prosperity for whoever wanted to work.
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>Are you proposing to dismantle the whole industry based on inmate labor? We should have some compassion towards those who make living out of that.

There should be no such thing as 'inmate labor' -- aka -- 'slave labor'. For those of us with compassion we don't believe slave labor is a good thing. Geeeze man.

>If you remove the marijuana laws and a few others, who will work for just food and shelter? Besides, it's the only industry where the hourly rates are competitive with the chinese.