Is our economy somewhat dependent on crime and other negatives?

Question

If we were able to stop or incredible reduce DUIs and drug addiction as well as other crime. A great deal of jobs and funding would be gone. Not to mention the politics that depends on crime.
Do you ever think that part of the problem is that we don't want a solution, we are just looking for treatment?

Answer 1

You may be right, but wouldn't it be a glorious way to celebrate unemployment?

Answer 2

1

Answer 3

Though it is an interesting conjecture it is ultimately false.

Many people are employed in crime, yet the costs to society outweigh the wages that they recieve. If by magic all crime stopped tomorrow then some people would be ought of a job but your taxes would also fall.

The decrease in taxes would spur the economy more than the decline in the criminal employment would hurt it.

The reason that we cannot,or perhaps I should say do not, get rid of crime is that the methods involved would be too severe.

As long as crime pays people will engage in it. In order to end all crime we would have to make sure that it didn't pay. The problem is that we are never completely sure when some is engaging in crime and when they are not.

If we punished all the people we suspect of being criminals and punished them bad enough to get them to stop forever then we would wind up punishing millions of inocent people who we accidently thought were criminals.

This would produce a police state that many people fear. There are some countries like Singapore in which this is done. There is very little crime in Singapore yet the people live have to be constantly aware of not doing anything which might cause the police to suspect them.

As you may have heard you can be beated in Singapore for chewing gum in public. People in America would rather live with some crime than give the police that kind of power.

Answer 4

It is a fact that a stable economy MUST have SOME low rate of unemployment. Black market deals such as drug dealing and drug traffic generate about $400 billion profit a year, which might mean that drug dealing can help a country's economy ( as awkward as that sounds!!). Crime does create jobs, not only federally (police) but also it creates demand for devices such as security cameras, alarms, security guards, etc. In summary, I wouldn't say the economy would be DEPENDENT on crime and drugs, but those things all together make up more than 10% of a country's expenses and incomes.

Answer 5

Government and police agencies are yes. Without crime there's no jobs and without criminals theres no Federal funding in fighting that crime. War on drugs, prisons, housing prisoners, parole and probation systems = multi-billion dollar business. Businessmen also invest in stocks for the above mentioned as well. Per person each prisoner doing time in state prison that state gets about $20,000 per year to house them. Most people don't make that much anymore. So states build more prisons, house prisoners on petty crimes and get huge federal kickbacks. People in prison make more money for the state then being in society.

Answer 6

you are correct, they made new laws to get more arrested, more bail bonds more courts more lawiers- of course it ends up to be more work for the new grads, and law inforcement, and just thank is the lifers more or less cared of, dui is only a portion of negativities because how many of those have been on medications, yet the warnings are their yet the boss will push them to work, and a small weave the police do have that right to arrest, any one can be stopped with out worning just a slight move is all they ask for or a suppision.

Answer 7

Wow, this is very profound! I never looked at it that way, but yes you may be right. We are often so busy looking for a quick fix, we never really get to the cure. I guess it is just like the pharmaceutical companies never really want to cure, they just want to treat the symptoms, because if they cured the problem, they would be out of business. I am impressed with your question! You get a star!

Answer 8

Absolutely.

Crime is a fast growth industry. It employs many people who would be otherwise out of work.

When this negative aspect of our economy became so important, I can't pinpoint the time and date.

I just know that much of my lifetime I've seen so much criminal activity of all kinds, and after awhile, it gets you frustrated.

Answer 9

is the economy dependent on crime? No, I dont think it is. However parts of the economy certainly are. I cant speak for the UK, but I can certanly share some of my experiences and reflections on the US system.

The US has the highest level of incarceration in the world behind China. 1 in 5 backs in america spends some time in a jail or prison at some point in their lives. In fact when I was representing criminal defendants almost all of them were enthnic minorities, and somewhere around 90% of them were brought up on charges for possession or sale of narcotics.

Now from a purely economic point of view, putting people away for drug use makes no sense at all. the average cost of incarcerating someone in a US prison runs at about $30,000, thats tax money that has to be spent for building more prisons, hiring more guards, having more public defenders and prosecutors and judges and other administrators of the justice system manage it all, its a huge expense. If the US legalized all narcotics today we would reduce the courts workload at least 8 fold, and I am willing to bet that the crimee rate will barely budge on other fronts. so why dont we legalize drugs if its the most efficient thing to do? Well, a lot of it has to do with our social morality. its not that these people are using and selling drugs and theireby harming society, no, its the fact that we as a society believe drug use is a moral wrong, and we want to punish people for it.
A different way to look at it is like this: a petty criminal who steals items in local stores may only do $10,000 worth of economic damage a year via his theft. This cost is passed on to consumers with higher prices, so we all pay for the theft, but its a cost thats very widely defused among many consumers. now say we catch this person and we put him in prison for 5 years at a cost of $30,000. From an economic point of view it makes little sense, the person is doing only 10K worth of damage but we are willing to pay 30K to lock him up. So why do we do it? To enforce the ethical code, thats why. We want society to upholld the value that stealing is wrong and show that there are legal consequences for stealing.

My point is that crime and the negative aspects of our justicesystem are social costs that we pay for enforcing a certain type of morality. it has little to do with economic efficiency or utility.
it also happens that some people benefit from the current system. the judges, lawyers and jailers as well as all the owners of the private prisons will never go along with a liberalization of drug laws for example because to do so will reduce demand for their services. Criminals are the ultimate consumers because they have no choice, each prisoner in a state or private prison is 30K worth to someone. Its 30K worth to the jailers that hold their jobs thanks to the man who sits behind the bars, its the judge who gets paid his 100K for handing down sentences and holding trials. My point is that our justice system is dependent on the current state of affairs, and in as far as this system benefits some people in power it will continue to perpetuate itself. So lawyers for exampe make the laws (as politicians) but are also responsible for administering and enforcing them as judges and prosecutors. thus the system rolls along.

So is the economy dependent on crime, no, but the justice system of any country absolutely is.

Answer 10

You seem to enjoy irony. Without opposites everything would come to a halt.