Our crime rate is probably 4x higher than developed European countries, so we could still use more of the security product. It’s not clear that they’re mutually exclusive anyway—you can push efforts to improve justice while improving policing.

I agree, but the question is how to get from here to there. Releasing all the nonviolent drug addicts - which we certainly should do! - still doesn't get us close to those other countries.

By the numbers, our best bet is probably revamping the prison system to focus on rehabilitation instead of punishment, and then drastically reducing the length of sentences.

Our goal should be to get someone as close as possible to 0 chance of recidivism in as short a time as possible.

Education is usually another good place to start. Educated people tend to make more informed choices, and informed choices tend to shape better futures.

Stop basing the sentencing on baseball would also be a good move.

The problem with the drug war is imprisoning dealers, not addicts - and if we released them it would get us much closer to those other countries.

Americans are a little different from many other peoples. Every one of us has a chip on their shoulder. I'd expect it to be different, in a country with a docile population.

Here's a picture and discussion that highlights this: https://smart-online-marketing.nl/en/conversion/cultural-dif...

It be kinda nice to see an article that cites the "research" it mentions rather than just providing a nice color coded graph of the world where

"you can see how every country on the world scores on individualism, from light-green to dark-green. Light-green means a low score on individualism, in other words, strongly collectivist. Dark-green countries are strongly individualist."

Feel free to link

What's the right ratio?