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Quoted from:
http://www.smalldeadanimals.com/archives/003250.html
"Slandering the poor
No sooner had the echoes of the gunfight at the Yonge Street Corral subsided than familiar strains arose from the Root Cause Chorus:
Poverty, bigotry, not enough welfare
Exclusion, confusion, please tell me that you care
The greedy and privileged won't share a dime
These are the causes of runaway crime.
(With apologies to Rogers and Hammerstein.* )
Over dinner with a friend who works in the justice system, I learned that crime isn't a black-and-white issue that could be addressed through simple measures like tougher enforcement and sentencing. The problem is complex, the root causes difficult. When people are poor and hungry, they find whatever means they can to survive. I interrupted.
"People don't steal because they're hungry."
"Yes they do!" was the disbelieving reply.
"Oh?" I asked. "What do they steal?"
"What do you mean?"
"What do they steal?" I repeated.
"Well ... electronics, televisions."
"They don't steal food?"
The poverty-leads-to-crime rationalization is a falsehood and insult to victims, and a slander against millions of low-income Canadians. Those who are truly disadvantaged or in temporary need should be able to turn to communities without suspicion and shame. Their struggle is difficult enough without the burden of being thoughtlessly associated with criminals.
I know people who have lived in poverty, who were denied education, endured substandard housing, had roadblocks thrown their way through circumstance or poor health, and who took second and third jobs to ensure their children were fed, clothed and went to school to earn a better life.
They did not steal. They did not assault the innocent. They did not exploit the failings of others. They did not victimize the elderly or vandalize property. Poverty was no barrier to discipline, respect, honesty and a work ethic. Indeed, poverty was no barrier to generosity.
The canard that "poverty causes crime" is the product of lazy correlation. We associate crime with poverty because criminals are so often poor. However, the association is an inversion - people don't become drug-addicted thieves because they're poor - they're poor because they're drug-addicted thieves.
If poverty were a root cause of crime, the six-figure executive wouldn't embezzle, the limo-driven politician wouldn't defraud. There'd be an income threshold at which crime was no longer "necessary" for survival. Poverty and ruin are simply one of the possible consequences when high-risk, high-return windfall economics trump morality, honesty and the work ethic.
What the white-collar criminal and inner-city gang member have in common is something quite different, and it's unrelated to birthright or economic misfortune.
What they share is a sense of entitlement. They have convinced themselves (through varying measures of rationalization and socialization) that they are entitled to our money, our property, our lives.
But where poverty is a factor in advancing the criminal mindset is in its usefulness in furthering agendas of those who trade in the currency of identity, class and envy to exploit the poor for the advancement of their own political interests.
A low-income community is infiltrated by leaders, activists and politicians who advise that citizens are "owed" a standard of living, an inherent right to benefits, that they are "entitled" to special policing and sentencing because of "cultural sensitivity." When that message is parroted by celebrities and endorsed by intelligensia, it should surprise no one that a percentage will embrace the entitlement ethos and take it a step further to decide for themselves just what is owed, when laws apply, what boundaries exist and what they may take without permission."
Quoted from:
http://www.smalldeadanimals.com/archives/003250.html
"Slandering the poor
No sooner had the echoes of the gunfight at the Yonge Street Corral subsided than familiar strains arose from the Root Cause Chorus:
Poverty, bigotry, not enough welfare
Exclusion, confusion, please tell me that you care
The greedy and privileged won't share a dime
These are the causes of runaway crime.
(With apologies to Rogers and Hammerstein.* )
Over dinner with a friend who works in the justice system, I learned that crime isn't a black-and-white issue that could be addressed through simple measures like tougher enforcement and sentencing. The problem is complex, the root causes difficult. When people are poor and hungry, they find whatever means they can to survive. I interrupted.
"People don't steal because they're hungry."
"Yes they do!" was the disbelieving reply.
"Oh?" I asked. "What do they steal?"
"What do you mean?"
"What do they steal?" I repeated.
"Well ... electronics, televisions."
"They don't steal food?"
The poverty-leads-to-crime rationalization is a falsehood and insult to victims, and a slander against millions of low-income Canadians. Those who are truly disadvantaged or in temporary need should be able to turn to communities without suspicion and shame. Their struggle is difficult enough without the burden of being thoughtlessly associated with criminals.
I know people who have lived in poverty, who were denied education, endured substandard housing, had roadblocks thrown their way through circumstance or poor health, and who took second and third jobs to ensure their children were fed, clothed and went to school to earn a better life.
They did not steal. They did not assault the innocent. They did not exploit the failings of others. They did not victimize the elderly or vandalize property. Poverty was no barrier to discipline, respect, honesty and a work ethic. Indeed, poverty was no barrier to generosity.
The canard that "poverty causes crime" is the product of lazy correlation. We associate crime with poverty because criminals are so often poor. However, the association is an inversion - people don't become drug-addicted thieves because they're poor - they're poor because they're drug-addicted thieves.
If poverty were a root cause of crime, the six-figure executive wouldn't embezzle, the limo-driven politician wouldn't defraud. There'd be an income threshold at which crime was no longer "necessary" for survival. Poverty and ruin are simply one of the possible consequences when high-risk, high-return windfall economics trump morality, honesty and the work ethic.
What the white-collar criminal and inner-city gang member have in common is something quite different, and it's unrelated to birthright or economic misfortune.
What they share is a sense of entitlement. They have convinced themselves (through varying measures of rationalization and socialization) that they are entitled to our money, our property, our lives.
But where poverty is a factor in advancing the criminal mindset is in its usefulness in furthering agendas of those who trade in the currency of identity, class and envy to exploit the poor for the advancement of their own political interests.
A low-income community is infiltrated by leaders, activists and politicians who advise that citizens are "owed" a standard of living, an inherent right to benefits, that they are "entitled" to special policing and sentencing because of "cultural sensitivity." When that message is parroted by celebrities and endorsed by intelligensia, it should surprise no one that a percentage will embrace the entitlement ethos and take it a step further to decide for themselves just what is owed, when laws apply, what boundaries exist and what they may take without permission."
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