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Comment by shadowgovt | Hacker News Reader

It depends on where you live, but the massive wealth inequality in the US coupled with the ripped social safety net means that not only are people pretty incentivized to steal what they need / want from those who have, but those who have can replace it quite quickly (often with just the inconvenience of some insurance wrangling).

So for the vast majority of property crime, the victim ultimately ends up being the insurance premium, and everybody involved kind of knows this, even if they don't say it outright.

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The worst affected cities have the widest safety nets. These kinds of crimes are fairly low in towns in Mississippi ravaged by worse poverty and with their own (painkillers) drug problems.

The nature of the drugs (fentanyl), the manifestation (homelessness) and the enforcement (or lack there of) are central to the problem faced here.

It is not a US problem. It is not a west problem. It is not a city problem. It is an urban-US-west-coast-city problem.

It's primarily driven by wealth inequality, not poverty. Who is someone going to steal from in Mississippi? Their also-poor neighbor who's got nothing worth stealing? The median income is around $25k in that state.

If your needs are met but wealth inequality drives you to crime you're merely a thief.

So lots of Americans are thieves.

If your society is full of thieves, what do you do to address it? HINT: the French Monarchy tried solving the problem via tightened enforcement.

The french monarchy shot the rioters, and it worked. When they stopped murdering rioters, they got their heads cut off.

No one single measure can be used to fix everything, but to imply that enforcement isn't part of the solution is silly.

Ultimately though, you have to change the culture. Make thieves seem pathetic and mean rather than rebellious and cool.

Violent crime is through the roof in Mississippi however. Jackson is dangerous these days, a far cry from how it was in my youth when I was living nearby in Vicksburg (which...was in the higher crime late 80s).

Wealth inequality is order of magnitudes higher in developing nations, and we do not see this sort of violence on the regular.

The worst affected cities have the widest safety nets. These kinds of crimes are fairly low in towns in Mississippi ravaged by worse poverty and with their own (painkillers) drug problems.

The nature of the drugs (fentanyl), the manifestation (homelessness) and the enforcement (or lack there of) are central to the problem faced here.

It is not a US problem. It is not a west problem. It is not a city problem. It is an urban-west-coast-city problem.

I don't know if you've seen any videos of Kensington Ave in Philadelphia, but it's shocking. Chicago & St Louis also have major issues with murder. This is an urban east coast & urban mid-west problem as well.

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