Any "savings" must then be spent on more police, legal aid, courts and prisons.
Shockadelic,
I'd rather see it spent on a National Service which would produce more decent citizens & cut the number of criminals. I'd be a lot cheaper too. A flat tax would enable the lot.

Hasbeen, I'm talking about the people who aren't committing crimes *now* because they get welfare.

Without it, they will rob and steal to survive (and possibly assault or murder in the process).
What about the social "costs" of living in a more threatening environment?

Really.like the discussion thus far. About the disadvantaged in life, I have no solutions but I urge you to read the excellent book by Robert Hughs "The Fatal Shore" and notably the chapter " A Horse Foaled By an Acorn". They talk about the " swinish multitude" .

Quote:
" modern squalor is squalid but Georgian squalor is " Hogarthian" , an art form in itself "

What do we imagine?

My two bobs worth chaps.