I don't think poverty causes crime. [View All]

[Kire]

Bill Maher, and many of his liberal fans, thought he caught Ann Coulter being a stupid hypocrite Friday night because she didn't agree with him that poverty caused crime. She didn't explain herself, so I'm not saying I agree with her reasons. I don't even know if she's not being stupid, or if she even has a reason. But, I want to do a little analysis of my own and share it here.

Poverty absolutely does not cause crime. I am reminded of an email I received from Sojourners (the Jim Wallis group of "Christians for Peace and Justice") just the other day, about the best way to combat poverty being voluntary poverty.

Choosing to live in poverty, like the nuns and the monks do, frees up the resources for the people who are driven to poverty by external circumstances - people who did not get the chance to choose poverty. People who are not ready for it.

Here's a link to the whole article about the concept of voluntary poverty (registration required):
http://www.sojo.net/index.cfm?action=magazine.article&issue=soj9507&article=950732c

Anyway, my theory is that poverty is related to crime but in exactly the opposite way. Crime causes poverty. All crime is about getting something stolen from you. Something necessary. If it's your name, your property, your innocence or your life, you are a victim of a crime and the consequence is poverty.

Now, how is it that poverty appears to cause crime? This is the insidious part. When you see poverty in an area, you know (if only sub=consciously) that crime has been there. Now, you have two choices. Choose to dwell in the poverty voluntarily, like the nuns and the monks, or choose to escape it.

I believe that all corporations are criminals. It's not hard to believe after seeing the documentary "The Corporation", taking a Sociology 101 course and hanging around liberal circles long enough. The corporate answer to escaping poverty is entrepeneurship. The Marxist option is revolution. Third, we have dwelling in poverty like the nuns and the monks. And last, to round out the dialectic, the fourth and last option is to write an analysis like this, raise as many questions as you answer, and toss it into the public realm.

I choose this one. It's making me very still.

Kire