I've been thinking about the GULAG system recently, or rather, about things like convict labour. I read an article about prison overcrowding in the UK the other day, and about how people are getting themselves arrested because they prefer prison over the outside (failures of capitalism in praxis, ftw). Then I remembered how Stalin built a canal with convict labour, and I thought that it sounded like a brilliant idea.

Dunno, maybe I'm being naive about it, but I often hear people I know complain about the way that convicted criminals don't do anything useful other than eat taxpayer's money.