Thomas Paine’s Rights of Man contains an interesting passage that pertains to Paine’s thought of America in 1791. He claims that America is very just and credits that to the government. Looking at America today, one may wonder if Paine’s characterization of America still holds true. One statement of his says: “the poor are not oppressed, the rich are not privileged.” That is something that relates to a multitude of recent instances in America that clearly show that Paine’s perception of America in 1791 does not hold up today. In modern America, not only are the rich privileged by benefiting from how America’s tax system works, but the poor are also being oppressed by it. The 2015 edition of Who Pays: A Distributional Analysis of the Tax Systems
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Bail in America is massively unjust today. In February of 2013, CBS News released an article where Jonathan Lippman—a judge from New York—said that the bail system is unfair to the poor. The way bail works is that when someone is arrested they have a bail hearing where a judge will determine the amount of money they would have to pay to remain out of jail before the court date. If bail cannot be posted, then that person would remain behind bars until the court date. In many cases the court date was weeks away. In November of 2014 Tyrone Tomlin, who is a construction worker in the Brooklyn area, was arrested for having drug paraphernalia. The drug paraphernalia in question was just a plastic straw. Tomlin had a history of low-level misdemeanors—mostly crimes of poverty like shoplifting food. When it was Tomlin’s turn in front of the judge, he was offered 30 days of incarceration for a guilty plea, but since he had done nothing wrong he refused. So, the judge set bail at $1,500. Tomlin had been living paycheck to paycheck and was unable to post bail. Even though he was completely innocent, Tomlin was about to be sent to New York’s notorious jail complex, Riker’s Island. An innocent and non-violent person was being sent to prison with murderers and rapists for the sole reason of being poor. However, on the other end of the spectrum, potentially violent people are not being forced to go to jail because they are wealthy. On March 14 of 2015, millionaire Robert Durst was arrested for the murder of Sarah Berman. His bail was set at $250,000, which he could easily pay since he is a millionaire. This let Durst go home even though he was arrested for murder. Tomlin was forced to spend time on Riker’s Island because he had a straw, but Robert Durst got to go home because he was a wealthy person suspected of murder. Many low-income and innocent people
Bail in America is massively unjust today. In February of 2013, CBS News released an article where Jonathan Lippman—a judge from New York—said that the bail system is unfair to the poor. The way bail works is that when someone is arrested they have a bail hearing where a judge will determine the amount of money they would have to pay to remain out of jail before the court date. If bail cannot be posted, then that person would remain behind bars until the court date. In many cases the court date was weeks away. In November of 2014 Tyrone Tomlin, who is a construction worker in the Brooklyn area, was arrested for having drug paraphernalia. The drug paraphernalia in question was just a plastic straw. Tomlin had a history of low-level misdemeanors—mostly crimes of poverty like shoplifting food. When it was Tomlin’s turn in front of the judge, he was offered 30 days of incarceration for a guilty plea, but since he had done nothing wrong he refused. So, the judge set bail at $1,500. Tomlin had been living paycheck to paycheck and was unable to post bail. Even though he was completely innocent, Tomlin was about to be sent to New York’s notorious jail complex, Riker’s Island. An innocent and non-violent person was being sent to prison with murderers and rapists for the sole reason of being poor. However, on the other end of the spectrum, potentially violent people are not being forced to go to jail because they are wealthy. On March 14 of 2015, millionaire Robert Durst was arrested for the murder of Sarah Berman. His bail was set at $250,000, which he could easily pay since he is a millionaire. This let Durst go home even though he was arrested for murder. Tomlin was forced to spend time on Riker’s Island because he had a straw, but Robert Durst got to go home because he was a wealthy person suspected of murder. Many low-income and innocent people