Harmful Illusions Bedevil Ideas About Free Markets and Imprisonment, UChicago Professor Writes
The United States prizes freedom above most other civic values, yet Bernard Harcourt believes the notion is widely misunderstood and inconsistently applied.
Freedom from government interference is a key tenet of the free market system that the United States champions, but Harcourt notes that Americans expect vigorous government action in imprisoning criminals. The result is a deep inconsistency, he argues, for even as the United States preaches freedom in the marketplace, it maintains the world’s highest incarceration rate. (more…)