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Comment by yarou | Hacker News Reader

Actually, it's more rational to turn to crime than work a shitty minimum wage job in an economically disadvantaged area. That's why those areas have crime.

The choices are simple.

Work at McDonalds/Walmart

Max weekly earnings: ~$420 assuming CA minimum wage and a 40 hour workweek

Smuggle cocaine from Mexico to USA

85k - 200k per run depending on quantity.

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Rational from the perspective of the individualist, but not necessarily from the perspective of the collectivist. If drug smuggling was just about moving drugs from A to B then it wouldn't be so bad, but drug cartels cause a lot of damage in their wake, including some of the gang violence that is having to be watched by the online content moderators in the linked article.

In Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs, personal safety and physiological needs come first before social needs.

That doesn't mean that moving up that hierarchy is not desirable. Whilst a life of crime may offer an escape route from a life of poverty, there are benefits to society at large if other escape routes out of poverty are within reach. If opportunities are not made easily available, it's up to the individual how much work they're willing to put in to make opportunities for themself.

To be clear, I'm not saying that criminals are automatically bad, some have been faced with tough circumstances and are just doing what they can to survive, what I am saying is that we should encourage alternatives where possible, as society as a whole benefits when we offer other opportunities for getting out of poverty.

With that argument no one would ever volunteer to be a soldier.

Shitty minimum wage job gives you a incentive to improve yourself so you don't have a shitty minimum wage job. Economical disadvantage area gives you a reason to leave said economical disadvantage area.

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