"When, in countries that are called civilized, we see age going to the workhouse and youth to the gallows, something must be wrong with the system of government.  It would seem, by the exterior appearance of such countries, that all was happiness; but there lies hidden from the eye of common observance, a mass of wretchedness that has scarcely any other chance, than to expire in poverty or infamy.  Its entrance into life is marked with the presage of its fate; and until this is remedied, it is vain to punish.

Civil government does not consist in executions; but in making that provision for the instruction of youth, and the support of age, as to exclude, as much as possible, the profligacy from the one, and despair from the other.  Instead of this, the resources of the country are lavished upon kings, upon courts, upon hirelings, imposters and prostitutes; and even the poor themselves, with all their wants upon them, are compelled to support the fraud that opresses them."

                                           -- Thomas Paine, "The Rights of Man, part two"