Devils Panties 09/22/2025

Necessary public services should not be for profit. Yes, I know that framing prisons as "necessary public services" is a bit weird, but ideally, that's what it is.

Agreed. Running government as if it’s a business is, was, and always will be a horrible position. Government services (including prisons) are not meant to be profitable. They are there to make sure basic needs are met. What’s worse is that despite any government services being funded with taxpayer money, any profit made rarely ever makes its way back into taxpayer pockets.
My state government has been running hundreds of millions of dollars in budget surpluses more often than not, and yet salaries for state employees keep stagnating and our health insurance is going up (sometimes up to 3x) for many employees.
- If they're businesses, then our tax dollars ought to be seen as investment money that pays us dividends rather then getting siphoned to the corporations. (This is an intentionally bad take - I fully believe public services need to be non-corporate and non-profit)
Three things that should always be ran by government: healthcare, education and prisons.
They must exist, and privately owned ones will always have wrong base incentive.
With prisons especially, it is not the interest of private to rehabilitate, but to get people in prison loop. It just cannot work. It is just easy to sell to people because people want prison to be punishment facility.
- There's a lot more than three, but those are definitely on the list.
- healthcare, education and prisons - You mean Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness? Where have I heard that before?
Honestly I think we should have at least some FOODS that are not for profit. If I need it to survive then the free market arguments don’t work,
- I mean ... yeah. If it's a thing you must have, then it should not be for profit. Staple foods definitely qualify.
  To be perfectly clear, when I say "not for profit" I mean that the costs of plant and equipment, administration, materials, logistics, labor, etc. are all paid for out of revenue - and a small fixed percentage to go into a fund to ward against variations in revenue, so that the business and its employees can continue to provide the public good and earn a living even in lean times.
Some form of law enforcement needs to exist, and compared to the alternatives we tried before, prison isn't that bad.
- The main problem with American prisons is their overuse for non-violent crimes. People don’t need to be separated from society because of a marijuana possession charge.
- No, American prison is absolutely that bad. Those of us in other countries often look on in horror at the system you have created, and you personally are now defending.
I mean ideally we wouldn't need prisons at all.
But, yeah, on a scale of "Magic utopia where no one commits felonies" to "Real life dystopia where the law is corrupted and crime is fabricated to fill prisons for profit" I guess I'll take "government run prisons (try not to compare it to how they fund and run public education for children)"

Hold up... Are there actual prisons with CEOs running them in America?

Yes. And they get to “rent” out the labor of inmates for personal profit. And we’re not just talking about prison maintenance or roadside cleaning and stuff, we’re talking about “renting” out cashiers to McDonalds and stuff like that.
- Don't forget the kickbacks that judges definitely aren't getting on the back end to send more people to prison, not to mention the outright bribery these prisons are using to "lobby" politicians to expand and maintain mandatory minimums to keep the beds full. Also, they don't just rent out the labour. The government literally pays them per-bed-filled.
- Jesus fucking Christ. And the US has one of the largest prison populations in the world. Slavery is alive and well in the US.

I usually dont like these comics, because they're so preachy. But as an ex con, I like this one.

This comic is dumb. That CEO would have a prepared and well rehearsed response to that question with a bunch of big words and some dog whistle to keeping immigrants from raping your daughters. "The free market can perform the function of rehabilitation better than some bloated bureaucracy. With state-run prisons, inmates of all kinds are released early because there isn't enough room, regardless of the nature of their crime. This way, you and your family can sleep safely, can attend little league games, and walk down your streets without having to worry what is hiding just around the corner."

Because CEO has become a slur, but otherwise is by definition a necessary part of any private enterprise.

Now, if your question is why prisons are private enterprises, that's a much better question.