A new proposal from the Swedish government is to stop welfare and other social help to those convicted of severe felonies.
I’m not onboard with that idea.
We’re not supposed to have the death penalty in Sweden and I don’t like the “once a thief, always a thief” mentality. If they’re not in prison or in psychiatric care, we still wanna prevent more crimes. Not create more homelessness or relegate them to the “shadow society” they’ve been given so much lip service to opposing.
This proposal will create outlaws and lawlessness.
From a “get votes” strategy perspective this move is genius from them. Emotionally it does resonate. It feels bad to have to help villains. So people who protest this law are gonna look bad, look like they’re on the side of the bad guys. It also further conditionalizes the welfare system which is a great win for the employer class. The more miserable the breadline is, the cheaper and more compliant labor becomes, is the idea. They want employing to remain a buyer’s market. Making sure there are “unhelpables” that are just sentenced to die in the streets is a necessary stepping stone for them, it’s a way to try to erode our empathy. (Not saying it’ll work because as long as hearts can beat they can bleed. I know there is love.)
It’s evil genius like that Azarello “Lex Luthor” comic where he tries to make the people of Metropolis to become mad at Superman for saving the life of a criminal. An especially disgusting one that Luthor secretly funded. (That blurb doesn’t spoil the whole thing, there’s more, it’s still a great read.)
Helping the bad guys does feel bad but pushing them into the arms of organized crime feels worse. If you’re declaring them dead this way you might as well pull the trigger for real. One of the best arguments against the death penalty is that it fosters desperation and escalation (“I’m already bound for the mercy seat so I might as well kill a couple of dozen more”) and I agree with that and I do oppose the death penalty and that argument applies even more here, way more actually since they’ll still be living and be even more dangerous and desperate than they would’ve been if they were in the grave.
Another popular argument is that sometimes people are innocently convicted. Yes. Sweden is certainly not immune to that happening. It’s so easy to get tangled up and misunderstood when trying to talk to authorities and institutions.