How is crime and illegal activity a bad thing if it pays the goverment?

iluvthePhillies: How is crime and illegal activity a bad thing if it pays the goverment?
Anyone who says that you shouldn’t break the law and commit crimes has no idea what they are talking about. For those of you who think I’m making a retarded statement, here are the facts:
1. People who get arrested have to pay fines
2. A good amount of the money that people pay in fines goes to the government (and very often its the local government of the town or city where the crime in question was committed)
3. The more money a government makes, the better shape the country, city, town, state, will be in because the government can use that money to solve the problems of the country, city, town, state, etc.
4. Therefore, it can be safely said that breaking the law and getting arrested is a good thing because by having to pay fines you are making the government richer, and by making the government richer you are helping out the country, town or state that the government runs!
All this goes to show that CRIME REALLY DOES PAY…. IT PAYS THE GOVERNMENT! And if the government is rich, the country or town the government rules will be on easy street. All this considered, how can anyone possibly say that illegal activity is a bad thing?!?!?

Answers and Views:

Answer by Marko
Unless you go to jail where it costs the government money to feed and shelter you.

Answer by dukemack
Before you can count fine revenue as a positive, you must also count the law enforcement cost, cost of courts and prisons etc etc… then consider all the expenses relative to crime prevention.

Answer by Nat
For one thing, only some crimes are punishable by fines (a lot are punishable by imprisonment, which actually costs the government a lot of money). For another, the money goes to the government, not to the victim of the crime. Good luck trying to convince the victim of a crime that what happened to him/her was a good thing because it generated a fine payable to the government. Also, in many cases the amount of the fine doesn’t pay for the expense of having to have court systems and police officers to deal with criminals. So, when someone commits a crime, there is a cost to the victim, a cost to society as a whole (for example, a lot of financial crimes, etc. would discourage commerce and industry), and there is the cost to have courts/police to deal with criminals. The money gained from fines is a lot less than the total cost of the crime.

Answer by Snowflakes
Based on your thought process, we should all commit murder because it pays the funeral industry.