America Doesn’t Understand that Inequality Causes Crime
If we want to get crime under control and restore social cohesion to our society, we must also tackle inequality — and that means taxing the morbidly rich
Monday I wrote to you about how Democrats must engage with the topic of crime; that same day the Washington Post documented how the GOP intends to use crime as their major wedge issue in this November’s election.
But the conversation does us a disservice if it’s limited to crime and punishment: we must consider what is driving crime and the social breakdown of which it’s a symptom.
Most people think crime (particularly property crime) is caused by poverty, like the poor people portrayed in Les Misérables stealing food for their children. But Louis XVI’s policies had both increased poverty in France while massively increasing his own wealth and that of his friends.
Sure, the poor were poor, but during that time the rich got vastly richer. There was poverty, and even periodic famines, but (outside of stealing food) that wasn’t what was driving crime and ultimately the revolution of 18th century France: it was inequality.
