On Thu, 18 Nov 2004 02:33:42 GMT, "Jay Honeck"
wrote:

I don't believe anyone ever claimed that there was NO causal relationship
between crime and poverty.

What I implied, however, is that we shouldn't care if there is.

In America, theft is a moral problem, not an economic one. No one needs to
steal to survive here. Therefore, no one "needs" to steal.

And, thus, to restate the obvious, the people that *do* steal here are truly
scum.

From what I've picked up in reading over the years, theft is a baby
that has many fathers. Poverty is certainly one causal factor. A
lack of a strongly bonded nuclear family is another. The existance of
gangs is one more. Drugs may be the biggest causal factor of all:
once the user is hooked, if their income cannot support the habit,
theft is the only alternative. But the use of drugs may be related to
the lack of a nuclear family and the existance of extreme poverty.

"Fixing" the problem(s) is not easy. Here is a really radical idea:
Make narcotic drugs legal and free, or at least very inexpensive.
Making drugs legal and free would go a LONG way towards reducing
theft, if that is considered to be the **BIG** problem.

Corky (notice I have not touched on the morality issue) Scott