millennial falcon
I grew up poor and as part of that I did crimes like theft. I am now pretty comfortably wealthy and I do not do crimes, in fact I have no compulsion to that at all. my personality and values have not changed significantly. the operative variable is wealth.
it really is quite clear to me that the only way it is possible to be "tough on crime" is to be courageous about ending poverty.
@falcennial well, that's one kind of crime...
another kind of crime is done for example by our (Czech) former PM who is literally more rich than Trump and he still does some shitty things like a subsidy fraud and cover up of chemical spill
@falcennial It is not a matter of courage.
It is a matter of poverty having two social roles:
1) To threaten us into compliance. "Your life sucks? Well, it could be worse."
2) To give us an underclass to despise (so that we don't feel we're at the bottom of the scale) and to blame for societal ills, redirecting the blame away from the powerful.
Because of this, those in power have a perverse incentive to not end poverty.
@falcennial It is not a matter of courage.
It is a matter of poverty having two social roles:
1) To threaten us into compliance. "Your life sucks? Well, it could be worse."
2) To give us an underclass to despise (so that we don't feel we're at the bottom of the scale) and to blame for societal ills, redirecting the blame away from the powerful.
@falcennial@mastodon.social Poverty is the overwhelming cause of petty crime. But all the really BIG crimes?
Those are all committed or backed by the rich.
We need to end poverty AND obscene wealth.