I would find your argument more compelling with a different example like shoplifting or vandalism: still deeply anti social, but not killing innocent people who are just going about their business.
One of the most to-the-book buddies I know is also the worst driver I know. He once had a gnarly accident where he flipped his car a few times because he had to look at his GPS briefly. I hate sitting in his car. He insists on always being the driver too because you can tell he finds driving overwhelming but thinks he’s actually good at it. Lol.
I have another buddy who does have a past DUI. He’s extremely coordinated and I have never felt unsafe in his car.
At the end of the day, if I had to choose someone to suspend their license forever, it would be my first buddy. I don’t care if he has a clean record. He simply was not gifted hand-eye coordination and is already a menace while sober.
But luckily criminal records are not public in Germany so its not a life sentence.
So basically, as long as you’re not so impaired you’re an obvious danger to others you’ll probably get away with it, which might explain why it’s such a popular alternative to getting home from the pub.
my thing is I'm all for justice but not justice that creates more of the same problem in others or the same people giving them even more reason to give up with, well, it's like branding people on the forehead. Why be surprised when the outcast keeps doing outcast stuff when they're never allowed to be anything but an outcast? it's like if society shot itself in the foot then is outraged demanding to know who shot it in the foot.
tryin to say it feels good but just feelin good don't fix nothin
No reason to continue punishing people forever, that is destructive for society. This ideology of as large punishment as possible is something I find off-putting.
A DUI conviction is something you could judge someone personally, but causes mayhem on a societal level.
Near as I can tell, approximately 1% of licensed drivers get arrested for DUI a year, and most have repeat offenses.
That doesn’t strike me as any more of a society wide ‘impossible’ issue than anything else?
One thing I have noticed though - problem drinkers are amazing at making it always someone else’s fault.
For the record, I don't drink.
One thing I have noticed though - problem drinkers are amazing at making it always someone else’s fault.
It is their fault and they also have an addiction problem. And it is also a societal wide problem.
There are many society wide problems, all with various trade offs and costs to ‘fix’. (I added quotes, because in most cases I suspect a real actual fix is impossible - merely moving things around into another category or changing how the underlying situation presents itself).
There are also many different individual choices one can make, with relative tradeoffs.
How would you rate illegal drug use/overdose deaths relative to DUIs for instance? What solutions (and related costs) do you think would be necessary to ‘solve’ the DUI problem? How about obesity? How about heart disease?
https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/products/databriefs/db457.htm
You’ll find comments in this post complaining about getting DUIs in the most walkable cities in the world, and on bicycles too.
We could ban all alcohol - would that solve it? Historically, the answer is a solid no.