Jets.. the Megaprisions and oil subsidies. How much does that actually cost you?

[dutch]

Find out.

http://contactyourmp.ca/harpercost

[hypa]

Don't we need planes to keep China from invading, and prisons to house the prick who wants to take the money that I earn?

Give me a break..... even Sweden has a stronger air force than we do. As for crime, didn't we go through another shooting on wednesday?
Oil company subsidies piss me off though. Granted, who knows if that's in place to keep them strong in the global market. I'd be pissed if China bought Petro Canada and shipped our fuel offshore.

What this tells me is that we need more people working and paying into the system, rather than suckling the teat of socialism.

[Infamous]

cool application, weak attempt of justifying Cons spending.

We should make one of these with NDP/Liberal platforms, including $2 billion in Community Hugs!

[KenN]

One shooting doesn't exactly constitute a major crime wave.


Kn.

[gotham]

Strange..I put in my annual income and then tried again with the max amount. It doesn't make sense that someone paying the max amount would pay 4x more than me according to this calculation. Everyone knows that rich people don't pay income tax.

[strahan]

what if i do want to put the zipperheads in prison, rage some new jets, and top them up with good gas?
[/gran torino]

[MudPie]

Originally Posted by hypa

Don't we need planes to keep China from invading, and prisons to house the prick who wants to take the money that I earn?

well duh. the question is how many prisons? how many planes?

Originally Posted by hypa

What this tells me is that we need more people working and paying into the system

if you like the swedish approach to air force, you might look at how they achieve what you say here.

[Freestyler]

Originally Posted by hypa

Give me a break..... even Sweden has a stronger air force than we do. As for crime, didn't we go through another shooting on wednesday?

Linky:

Canada’s crime rate continues to fall.

In continuing the downward trend of the past decade, the crime rate dropped by 3 per cent last year and was 17 per cent lower than in 1999, according to new Statistics Canada figures released Tuesday.

A decrease in property crimes accounted for most of the decline in 2009. There were 17,000 fewer vehicle thefts, 10,000 fewer mischief offences and 5,000 fewer break-ins.

Violent crimes also declined, but to a lesser extent than overall crime, Statscan said. Some types of violent crimes increased, including attempted murders, extortion, firearms offences and criminal harassment.

From StatsCan:

Most imprisonment terms are relatively short

Over half (55%) of all custodial sentences imposed in 2008/2009 were one month or less, while an additional one-third (31%) were for periods from greater than one month to up to six months.16,17 Sentences that were two years or longer were imposed in 4% of guilty cases with custody18 (Chart 2).

[hypa]

Hey look, I can google shit too!

The most dangerous city in Canada?
PoCo.

http://www2.macleans.ca/2009/03/04/t...a-murder-rate/
In fact, BC has three of the top 10 most dangerous cities.


Most dangerous cities for crime. BC has 7 of the top 15 on the list.
http://www2.macleans.ca/2009/03/04/t...%80%94by-rank/

Crime by population, Vancouver is #8.
http://www2.macleans.ca/2009/03/04/t...by-population/

cheers.

[chupacabra]

Originally Posted by hypa

Hey look, I can google shit too!

The most dangerous city in Canada?
PoCo.

http://www2.macleans.ca/2009/03/04/t...a-murder-rate/
In fact, BC has three of the top 10 most dangerous cities.


Most dangerous cities for crime. BC has 7 of the top 15 on the list.
http://www2.macleans.ca/2009/03/04/t...%80%94by-rank/

Crime by population, Vancouver is #8.
http://www2.macleans.ca/2009/03/04/t...by-population/

cheers.

Even if Canada had virtually no crime there will always be a list of the "most" dangerous. The question is, why more prisons if crime is dropping?

I am actually not against new facilities if there was a reason. Maybe we need the space to keep violent offenders locked up longer?? But we haven't changed anything else that will make that happen, not to mention it would only gradually increase our need over time. If Harper is so concerned about the deficit this is really odd timing don't you think?

[Patrick Bateman]

That calculator doesn't mention whether the cost to me is per year, or is spread out over a five year time span.

[hypa]

Originally Posted by chupacabra

Even if Canada had virtually no crime there will always be a list of the "most" dangerous. The question is, why more prisons if crime is dropping?

The great thing about statistics is that using the right parameters, I could almost prove anything.

I am actually not against new facilities if there was a reason. Maybe we need the space to keep violent offenders locked up longer?? But we haven't changed anything else that will make that happen, not to mention it would only gradually increase our need over time. If Harper is so concerned about the deficit this is really odd timing don't you think?

It all depends on what his plans are for the prisons. Are they going to be used to make the fed's money, like the yanks do with their private facitilies?

Or it could be as simple as the same reason that we need a new Patullo bridge, in that our infrastucture is old and in need of updating.

Honestly, I'm more interested in a couple of other points, from corporate and personal taxes, to the ability to get proper medical care. The LGR is an important factor in my decision too. That goes to show that we have it pretty good in Canada, even with Harper in power.

[Freestyler]

Call it a pictorial post, but I'll add the commentary to what I thought would be rather clear.

Violent crime has been on a decline for nearly 20 years... your previous point is moot and we didn't build a mass of prisons to get there. Also, the thought of more prison space is not a deterrent to someone who is going to committing a crime... if anything it means that conditions in prison would be more livable and modern thus making it less of a bad place.

Edit: Before someone chimes in saying that more prison space means judges can sentence more people to them, I say; "that's bunk!". Our laws need to change first to put harsher penalties crime in general and even before that, police would need an increase in resources to catch and prevent crimes in the first place.

Ultimately if someone is in the state of mind where they are actually following through with a violent offense such as murder, the amount of jail space or even getting caught isn't going to prevent an such an senselessly irrational act. The focus should be intercepting and preventing the act before it is committed and there are a billion different ways to do that are more effective than more brick and motor buildings that contain people after the fact.

[cam@nsmb.com]

Originally Posted by hypa

The great thing about statistics is that using the right parameters, I could almost prove anything.

Nobody is debating the fact that the crime rate is falling. Not even the cons. The fact is they are 'tough on crime' because there is a large ignorant portion of the population who believe more jails and tougher sentences reduce crime. Ask California how that has worked out. Many states that imposed minimum sentences have begun to repeal them because it is an approach that has failed. Harper knows this but all he cares about is getting elected. So he doubles the federal expenditure on prisons.

Who cares if more people are in jail - with no net benefit to society - as long as they get re-elected. That is my problem with politicians. They will do things they know to be harmful to society just to get elected. And yes - imho - the cons on both sides of the border are the greatest perpetrators of this.

[MackM]

Crap 0 dollars..I might have to make a fighter jet donation to feel like i payed for some of that awesome.