In the much touted book Rich Dad Poor Dad -- which has also received quite a bit of criticism over factual errors (see here and here) -- Robert Kiosaki puts forth the importance of understanding cash flow. In essence, it means that the financial state of the individual can be viewed as multiple pools of money connected by pipes. The employer's pocket feeding into the individual's pocket, which in turn feeds the mortgage, the utility bills, et cetera. In order to be wealthy, one must understand that plumbing.
This is not a financial blog, but I wonder what we might have concluded had we applied similar reasoning to the penitentiary system in the United States. Consider the pools of the American people: pre-high-school, high-school, college students, working professionals, the unemployed, criminals at large, prison inmates.
Criminal history, depending on the offence may remain on the ex-inmate for seven years or longer, virtually precluding him or her from landing a decent job. A glass ceiling over impoverished communities becomes a pipe feeding from the pool of the prison inmates back into itself. Throw in some suction from high-school into the criminal and prison pools, as well as weak economy which is sure to pump some people from the working professional pool into the prison system as well and we get one ugly picture.
The U.S. incarceration rate is comparable to that of the Soviet union during the reign of Joseph Stalin.
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