Letters To My Country

January 12, 2014

"What if I had lived in a state or a country or a time—like now, for instance—where after the second or third [drug rehabilitation] treatment, they said, “Gosh, Mr. Carr, you seem to be having trouble getting the hang of this. Is this really a good use of the hard-earned tax money of the citizens of our state?” The state of Minnesota, along with the Feds, paid for at least three treatments, gave me general assistance while I was in the booby hatch, and, when I got custody of my children, issued me food stamps to feed them. A few years later, I got cancer, and it paid for all of that too. …Not a bad investment, in retrospect. Not only did the state not have to bear the burden of permanently placing the twins in foster care, but I had been a very good candidate to graduate from jail to prison, which is a very expensive proposition. As a citizen with the wheels glued back on, I have probably kicked back more than $300,000 in federal and state taxes. I’m hoping they drop a little of it on a loser like me."

— David Carr, The Night of the Gun (via prettayprettaygood)

12:20am | URL: https://tmblr.co/ZMMjnx142XPqo

(Notes: 53)