DHS to Begin Collecting DNA of Anyone Arrested

Foobar of Borg writes "The AP is reporting that the US will soon be collecting the DNA of anyone who is arrested by a federal law enforcement agency and any foreigner who is detained, whether or not charges are eventually brought. This begins to bring the US in line with the UK which, as discussed before on Slashdot, is trying to collect DNA of 'potential criminals' as young as five. DHS spokesman Russ Knocke stated that 'DNA is a proven law-enforcement tool.'"

Comments

Cut taxes until the federal government collapses.

[tjstork]

The ultimate form of revolution is tax cuts. The more you cut taxes, the more the government will collapse.

Re:Cut taxes until the federal government collapse

[ArcherB]

I suggest you study history. Trickle-down economics like you discuss are proven not to work. Its been tried three times in US history, and at the end of each time was a major stock crash and a recession or depression. The first time was under Harding/Coolidge/Hoover which led to the Depression. The second was under Regan/Bush 1, which ended with the single greatest 1 day loss in stock market history, and a fairly nasty recession in the late 80s/early 90s. We're hitting #3 right now, and it will get much worse before it gets better. First, the great depression was not caused by supply side economics. It was caused by people buying and selling worthless stocks, bad banking practices and an over zealous laissez-faire attitude toward the economy.

Next, healthy economies are cyclical. They do really good for a while, then they do really bad for a while. The bad part is called a "correction". In general, they do better than they do worse. You mentioned Reagan. When Reagan took office, the economy was a mess. Taxes were as high as 75%, interest rates were around 19% and inflation was around 10%. When all that is combined with high unemployment, you have the makings for an economic disaster! Then Reagan took office in 1981. We had eight years of prosperity before one year of a minor recession in Bush's third year, right after taxes were raised (just enough to lose his reelection... well, Perot helped). With Clinton, taxes were cut under a Republican led congress and we had 6 years of economic boom, of course, followed by a correction. Same thing happened with W. Bush. Bush cut taxes, the recession (Clinton's correction) ended until 9-11. Then we suffered a slight recession followed by 6 years of non-stop economic growth. Hardly what I would call an economic failure. Right now, we are headed for a recession, possibly. Regardless of what you hear on TV, we are NOT in one now. A recession is two consecutive quarters of economic shrinkage. So far, we have not had one single quarter of shrinkage, much less two!

I noticed you didn't mention Carter in your little history lesson. He raised taxes, which led to stagflation. That's a shrinking GDP and inflation at the same time. BAD BAD BAD thing for economics. What solved it? Reagan and his tax cuts. Although, Reagan wasn't the first. JFK stimulated the economy by cutting taxes in 1963.

So, yeah, supply side economics (it's real name, not "trickle down economics" as you call it) WORKS, and history has shown that, regardless of how you try to rewrite it.

In reality, money doesn't actually trickle down. If it did, the middle ages would have been the most prosperous time in history- the rich didn't pay any taxes and owned everything. The greatest boom periods in history have all been a result of increasing the wealth of the lower and middle classes- the end of serfdom, the industrial revolution, etc. Its well proven- if you want to create wealth you don't give the rich more of it, you make sure the lower classes get it directly. That's AWESOME, but your reasoning is all wrong. Of course, you don't mention that those in the middle ages did not get to elect their government like those in say Rome or Greece, which had booming economies and a healthy upper, middle and lower classes.