The US police state, the "best" in the world

[struggle4progress]

67. I thought we were talking about police states. If you included the various forms of "administrative

detention" in China, the incarceration rate would increase substantially, but it's hard to get good data. And what about the folk who work under essentially slave-labor conditions in the electronics factories? Do they count as free people to you?

The object of a coherent analysis of a society should be to understand how it actually works

There certainly are oppressive mechanisms in the US system, which serve particular interests -- and these mechanisms are worth examining in detail. There are also brutal oppressive mechanisms in the Chinese system, which serve particular interests -- and those mechanisms are worth examining in detail. Your reliance on single statistic (incarceration rate) doesn't even begin to shed much light on the subject -- the more so, because really good comparative data isn't available. And it does make a different, if China executes 8000 people a year