School vs Jail

For $14,000 a year I got …

For $30,000 a year I got …

The Federal government will give you up to $10,000 a year, you can easily earn or borrow the $4,000 or $100/week for school. Local, State and Federal governments will spend $30,000 a year, you or your family/crackheads can add/donate an additional $5,000 a year for phone calls or overpriced ramen noodles and cookies. As responsible individuals, we must accept that this is our choice. (Regardless of guilt/innocence) Which would the government choose? The government would choose “C”. (Militarize everything and everyone) We’ll explore that more later.
Let’s examine the first two options.

In school, you get to share a room with people who “match” your interests. Later, for an additional $3,000 to $8,000 a year you can share a room, apt or house with people who match your “real” interests. For some, prevailing interests may lie with home cooked meals. Let’s just focus on on-campus housing for now. You get a buffet for breakfast, lunch and dinner with selections that valiantly mix attempts at blending home cooking with local cuisine at its blandest. If you still want sustenance beyond the cafeteria you can supplement that with whatever will deliver late, wherever you can get to or whatever a mini-fridge and microwave can support.

In jail/prison you are provided with strategically portioned breakfast, lunch and dinner. You share a cell and dorm with people who “match” your interests. The higher up you go, the more similar the interests you share. (It’s like that in school as well) If three hots (room temperature) is not enough, you can supplement your meals with the aforementioned ramen noodles and cookies. Did I forget to mention the choice of meals? Why you can select from “dietary” (which consists of a cousine derived from the grouping of diabetic, vegan, and religious diets) or nothing (just don’t eat [But then they’ll come and make you]).
In school, health care is included. In jail, health care is extra. (Not very much at all, but still extra) And what you get is significantly different. Significantly! You get treated in school by the best and brightest up an coming PAs, surgeons, dentists, nurses, dermatologists and whatever else as well as very dedicated alumni. And I’m not talking about walking into the dental school to get your teeth jacked on my some C student. That’s what prisoners get. In jail/prison you get attended to by pay check chasers, bleeding heart morons, people who had nowhere else to go and those same C students from before. A broken finger in both places will get either a finger cast or a Popsicle stick. In one place, you’ll pay for a finger cast and get a Popsicle stick.

Schools gain notoriety and prominence by preparing individuals to enter and lead various workforces across diverse industries. Prisons gain notoriety and money by preparing and providing the most remedial and scary of workforces.

Surpisingly, both can become somewhat of a fashion show. Obviously school provides you with more options. It also provides you with alternatives for achieving status. In school intelligence is an easy road to status. In prison intelligence is also highly regarded however intelligence is simultaneously violently feared. In both the entrepreneurial spirit can thrive. The only difference is the promotion and reward. In prison, entrepreneurs risk being rewarded with The Hole. Both take a little work and dedication to get in. Getting out is where the difference lies, by FAR. Statistically, the more difficult task of getting out goes to prisons. Both can be coed. In school… (hmph! Nuff said.) In prison/jail you won’t even get to see your coeds (and you better not look!). I’ll end the comparisons there.

And then there’s option C. For approximately three weeks you will share quarters with up to twenty random individuals. After that, you get options. You can continue that type of living or you can upgrade to apt/house/cave living. The cuisine is better than school food but at times worse than jail/prison food. Supplementation is vastly improved by commissaries. Military healthcare rivals school health care. Ex-military can expect to prepared for success at any level. (Provided you don’t go crazy/crayish or get hook on drugs first) Any fashion/status will be earned by hard work (Or going to school). Intelligence is highly regarded provided you are smart enough to know when to speak and when to listen. The entrepreneurial spirit thrives similar to school and prison/jail. (I may note that neither of the three actually encourages entrepreneurial-ism) Promotion and reward can rival that in school. It takes a lot of work and dedication to stay, leaving is a little easier than prison/jail. The Coed status doesn’t rival school (nothing does-not even the NBA) but at least you can see them. And money. The government will spend over $30,000 a year on you for as many as 20 years (in rare cases, more). Again, governments will choose option C.

Unfortunately, it’s ultimately an individual decision. Larger numbers choose jail/prison. The majority chooses nothing. The decision is left to taxpayers and the government. Left to taxpayers to choose, they choose jail/prison. As an investment, school offers better returns by a landslide. Often, returns are seen with as little as one year’s investment.



This may seem like common knowledge but just take a look around. Everyone knows candles cost more than electricity. Yet, Americans are still paying for candles and not investing in electricity. Believe me. I’ve spent more money being primitive than I have being/becoming evolved. And I don’t think I’m alone. Am I?