I agree completely. Why does the US have so much crime? Because there's no safety net. (The War on Drugs also contributes in a major way.) This ends up being foolish, because we pay more to keep people in prison (over $30,000 per year) than we would by providing them with education and training. We have the resources to get rid of poverty, but we're spending what we have in phenomenally stupid ways.
There was far less crime in America before the War on Poverty dramatically expanded the social safety net in the 1960s.
America has a significant anti-poverty safety net -- welfare payments, food stamps, Medicaid health care, public housing vouchers, earned income tax credit, child care subsidies.
1) Getting rid of the war on drugs would be a good thing. As it would save money and not cause as much crime (drug war causes crime).
2) You can spend money on education and training to reduce poverty.
Please keep your arguments separate rather than using one issue as a support for another. That 30K per prisoner could be spent on any number of things, or simply not collected from the public at all.
Personally, I agree with 1. That would be fantastic, and I think that there is a political ball rolling slowly towards that.
The second, well, we do spend a lot on education and training. I am not so sure that it does much more than make education more expensive.
