Fair Ain't Always Fair.

       There's a school Superintendent near here who was found guilty of stealing $12,000 from a student fund. He will spend one week in jail. Now he'll spend some time under house arrest and some time on probation, but just one week in jail. So I got my calculator out and it works out that one week is 168 hours and that equals $71 per hour. Not too shabby, sounds like a CEO. At minimum wage he'd have to spend 229 days behind bars.
       Now I mention this news item because, from time to time, similar reports come from all over the country. Important people or wealthy, or "too big to fail" banks seem to get a slap on the wrist while some poor old lady who steals a quart of milk gets the book thrown at her. I can't quite put my finger on it, but there seems to be some inconsistencies in our legal system.
       I'm not gonna complain too vigorously because there are certainly many countries where the privileged classes are treated even more favorably. I just find it interesting that in a country that prides itself so much on the evenhandedness of its treatment toward its citizenry, that such blatant mistreatment of its poorer classes is so publicly visible.
       We are beginning to find some come-up-ence in places where municipalities, police and courts are playing the racial two-step, but when it comes to the rich-poor two-step, not so much. Shouldn't there be some easily calculated formula whereby the more you steal, the more time you do behind bars and the small theft gets less time? Or even the same time no matter how much you steal?
       Of course I realize that better legal representation has a lot to do with it, such as pointing out how damaging it will be to the rich person's reputation. Being an itinerate poor person, I assure you I feel strongly about my reputation and such a sentence would be devastating to me as well. So shouldn't everybody get the same punishment for the same crimes? And shouldn't greater sums stolen mean greater time served?