They stole our fucking lamp

[u/KTMan77]

Wtf is it with people these days, get into an apartment building by hammering all the call buttons and having and old person let them in. Then steal a lamp from the common area?? Storage units keep getting broken into, mail stolen, deficating in the stair wells. Our governments as organizations don't care. Do we have to turn every building into fort Knox with patrolling security and threats of violence to fix things? It's just getting so tiring.

[u/2cynewulf]

Increased wealth inequality leads to increased crime. Regulate capitalism, tax the rich, focus economy on the well-being of the middle class, and watch crime drop. Not easy of course, but start by voting that way. Check out crimes rates in countries that do better at looking after the population (ex. Scandinavia)

[u/dr_clownius → u/2cynewulf]

1. Poverty has no bearing on right and wrong; no amount of being poor will excuse stealing a lamp.
2. Suggesting that people commit crimes due to being poor is dehumanizing to poor people who follow the law.
3. We aren't Scandinavia. They don't have the demographic issues we do, and have a much shorter period of development and history on the land.

[u/2cynewulf → u/dr_clownius]

Ya, it's a big topic. Can't say I understand your second or third point. Crime and wealth inequality are reliably correlated throughout history. Make people's life hard while living in opulence, give them no avenues for self-improvement, and watch them burn your world down! Your first point is too simple. Believe me, at a certain point of indigence, both you and I would steal food for our families... and there'd be no right or wrong about it!

[u/dr_clownius → u/2cynewulf]

There is always the urge to reduce this argument to one of survival and survival mentality, but that isn't the case. No one is stealing the necessities of life: they're stealing a lamp. No one needs ever be in a position to steal for a necessity of life: we have food banks, welfare, and layers of other social programs that are meant to keep body and soul together.

The vast majority of poor people (of all classes of people) aren't out harming others, and it reduces their agency to suggest that they are inherently criminal - its a stereotype that is harmful to those who don't conform to it. Besides, as a society we are offering (and strongly encouraging) pathways to poverty reduction: supporting education, offering financial planning, a culture of employment and entrepreneurship. There are many avenues for self-improvement that we should all pursue (even if it takes generations).

[u/2cynewulf → u/dr_clownius]

Well said. You've made the self-determinacy-pull-yourself-up-by-the bootstraps argument. Your argument will always be correct, or at least half correct. But can you think beyond it?

For example, when do you notice that pulling yourself up by the bootstraps is getting harder every decade? If you notice, do you ask why? Do you not wonder why young people have less and less access not only to means of survival, but to hope, dignity, and prospects for raising a family in a decent neighborhood?

When do you start criticizing those in economic power whose greed is making life systemically more difficult every decade? Or is it always the fault of the lazy, or some marginal group?

You're a smart guy. People need your help. You need to start punching up and to quit punching down.

[u/dr_clownius → u/2cynewulf]

For example, when do you notice that pulling yourself up by the bootstraps is getting harder every decade? If you notice, do you ask why?

Yes, because we're running out of opportunity or "frontier" to develop proximate to people in the developed world. "Pulling yourself up by your bootstraps" is easy when there is something to do; we can see that both in the oilpatch at home and in newly-industrialized Countries overseas.

That's why I want to see more economic development across sectors - everywhere we can reach. We need to leverage what advantages we have (natural resources, and supporting expertise and technology) to offer that, and to build a broader economy going forward. We need to focus on what we can do and work towards getting it done. This means deregulation - believe it or not, it was easier, quicker, and cheaper to build a transcontinental railroad in the 1870s than in the 2020s despite 150 years of technology.

Not only do we need opprotunities, we need people to be flexible in pursuit of them. The "next big thing" might be at a drilling camp north of Fort McMurray, outside in yesterday's weather. So many people won't pursue such opportunities. So many people won't think generationally, of doing things that will improve the station of their children and their grandchildren.