- Anything Else -

Reasons to be cheerful.

Posted by: Red Deathy ( Socialist Party, UK ) on September 03, 1999 at 14:03:43:

In Reply to: if enonomic inequality was a major reason for crime, you would expect criminals to target the rich. posted by DonS on September 03, 1999 at 11:41:52:

: DonS: And that person's morality has a direct effect on how they react to these sort of circumstances.

But morality is not seperate from environment, our entire conscciousness is environmentally determined. Wealthy people are more moral.

: DonS: And if enonomic inequality was a major reason for crime, you would expect criminals to target the rich.

No, because the poor are largely segretated off into their own areas, whereas the rich have more security- the same happens in America, except it happens in prison, where poor criminals prey on each other. Its not a strict 'gain' motivational drive, its a number of factors, right diown to frustration.

: DonS: I agree that the poor are more likely to commit crimes--I know some of the poor who do just that. Most of these people are poor because they CHOOSE not to work. They want easy money.

And they live in an economic system where it is more profitable, and more enjoyable to be a criminal. As opposed to taking a shite job stacking shelves.

: They will take a handout from the government, and they will steal if they think they can get away with it. These people are poor because of how they act. They are also criminals because of how they act. The problem is the people, and how they were raised.

Yes, and ghow people are raised is depenmdant upon their social and economic environment. If you lkive in a society where personal gain is the sole value of worth...

: DonS: In my personal experience, things are better.

Accroding to one article I've read their down 3% over the last 10 years. Thats not so much wage cuts, as jobs in industry, etc. lost, and replaced with lower paying service sector jobs.

: DonS: As I recall, our big influx was in the 1890s, and most of these went into New York and other big cities.

Which 20 years later were to see rising crime rates...

: DonS: The '20s were considered a boom time in the US. The homicide rate was going up in the '20s and continued into the early '30s. It peaked in '35, which is to say it started going down.

Boom for whom? What caused the great depression was inequality, i.e. the poor were getting poorer, while the rich got richer, so for the lower levels of society, an overall boom is neither here nor there, they are just faced with the break-up of their communities (farming communities especially).

Also, lets not forget Fordism...


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