Apologies all, I was QI and I heard something that made me violently sick. I thought I should share it with you, along with a little extra research i have compiled.

Prisons

0 Societies in all of history have imprisoned more of their population than america

1% of Americans (2.3 million) currently incarcerated

1 in 30 men aged 20-34 imprisoned

1 in 9 black men aged 20-34 imprisoned

3% of americans imprisoned, on parole or working a community service order.

3 strikes policy has lead to life sentences for offences such as stealing 4 cookies.

5% of the world’s population constituting 25% of the worlds prison population.

Business

0 legal imports to america that have been created by forced or prison labour.

30% of headphones/microphones/speakers

21% of office furniture produced in america is manufactured by prison labour.

36% of home appliances produced in america are manufactured by prison labour.

46% of body armor produced in america is manufactured by prison labour.

93% of paints and paintbrushes produced in america are manufactured by prison labour.

100% of military helmets, bullets, ammunition belts, bullet-proof vests, ID tags, shirts, pants, tents, bags, and canteens produced in america are manufactured by prison labour.

25 cents an hour is all the inmates are paid for their services.

$2.5 billion is the estimated net profit from prison labour in the US last year, expected to rise this year as Aerospace and High-tech companies begin to take greater interest.

CONGRATULATIONS America! Your land of the free, nation under Lady Liberty, has managed to produce the most lucrative slave labour trade in the world today. In truth, the only reason you’ve managed to hang onto economic superiority thus far as a nation is that all this manufacturing keeps imports down and exports up…. and how have you acheived manufacturing profit percentages this high in a nation with a minimum wage $7.25 per hour, vying for supremacy against the communist state of China? By reinventing the only workforce cheaper to run than a communist one: a slave workforce.

Even the fact that crime rates are declining in america hasn’t been able to put a cap on this, with a graph showing conviction rates and prison population from 9080’s and 2000’s having a divergence so great that a scale change of an order of magnitude is required to superimpose the latter onto the former.

One more success for the quote greatest nation on the planet unquote. Would you like fries with that?