Inequality causes crime because it destroys social trust, the core fabric of any society: Without social trust, empathy and shared values disintegrate and culture begins to collapse.
Yesterday morning, a burglar tried to break into my home. Thankfully the doors were all locked, but a few houses down wasn't so lucky; our neighbor was home and is now pretty traumatized to have experienced a home-invasion burglary. By the time the police arrived, the burglar was long gone in a stolen car.
A friend is trying to sell his condo in downtown Portland but large parts of downtown have been turned into a giant homeless camp so there are few buyers even in this hot real estate market. The nearby streets are pockmarked with tents and the curbs frequently sport human waste.
Homelessness and its attendant crime are getting so bad that police in many cities don't bother to investigate many property crimes unless they're against wealthy people and involve things of great value. Just among my own friends and acquaintances in the past year I've seen 3 cars stolen (one I watched happen!), one car damaged in a smash-and-grab, and two home-invasion break-ins.
Read more at
HartmannReport.com.
-Thom
