4 ms·

This reminds of the anti-singularity thesis: increasing wealth from technology enables a decline in cultural values. ( http://unqualified-reservations.blogspot.

This reminds of the anti-singularity thesis: increasing wealth from technology enables a decline in cultural values. ( http://unqualified-reservations.blogspot.com/2007/05/antisingularity.html http://unqualified-reservations.blogspot.com/2007/05/antisin... ). In 1910, inner city crime like we have today simply did not exist. Baltimore, Philadelphia, New York, London - all these cities had homicide rates that today you can only find in Pleasantville suburbia. It was the age of stern Victorian values and law and order policing. People did not have the luxury of giving criminals the benefit of the doubt, nor of allowing any kind of public disorder, lest their neighborhoods turn unsafe. The trouble is, law and order tactics are a blunt instrument, and they are likely to offend and hurt good people too. Today, we are generally wealthy enough that moving away from crime is a possibility for the middle and upper class. Running has become easier than coming together as a community to solve the crime program. This especially true when "coming together as a community" means navigating big city politics, and cracking down on crime can get you labeled as racist. Today, when a community suffers from high crime rates, decent folk move out. First it was moving from the inner cities to the suburbs. Now, in many cases, people are moving from the suburbs back to expensive neighborhoods in the city. High real estate prices have become a substitute for crime control. I think at some point we're going to have to stop the running and figure out how to stop the ongoing warfare in our cities. Allowing the crime is not doing anyone any good. Inner city men have astounding deaths from homicide. And the middle class is spending ever increasing portions of their income on housing. Everyone loses.

smanek 18y ago
"In 1910, inner city crime like we have today simply did not exist." Do you have any data to back up that claim? It's the exact opposite of any data I've ever seen ... I've been told that violent death rates are ~ an order of magnitude lower now than a century ago. Take a look at http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/steven_pinker_on_the_myth_of_violence.html http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/steven_pinker_on_the_myth..., for example. Hell, violent crime is down nearly 50% since the 70's (http://www.ojp.usdoj.gov/bjs/glance/viort.htm http://www.ojp.usdoj.gov/bjs/glance/viort.htm) when the gov. started keeping the numbers.
- bokonist 18y ago
  Murder rates by location: Baltimore 1911: 5.8 Baltimore 2006: 43.3 Philadelphia 1911: 4.4 Philadelphia 2006: 27.7 New York 1911: 5.9 New York 1990: 30.7 New York 2006: 7.3 Newark 1911: 4.0 Newark 2006: 37.4 Chicago 1911: 9.0 Chicago 2006: 16.4 Washington DC 1911: 7.8 Washington DC 2006: 29.1 England & Wales 1910: 8.1 England & Wales 1997: 14.1 In many of our great cities, murders increased by an order of magnitude. Only in New York, where the finance boom priced out the poor are homicide rates down ( the crime all went to Newark and other ring cities, which is the phenomena I pointed out in my original post). Pinker may be right about the middle ages to 1900. But he's dead wrong about the 20th century. The 20th century saw a millennium of progress get wiped away. Europe had two world wars that displayed levels of barbarism unseen since the Mongol invasion. Population explosions in Latin America, India, and Africa resulted in masses of people living in violent, malnourished, overpopulated slums. The great cities of the United States collapsed into burned out, dystopian ruins, which look like something out of the late Roman empire ( see The Ruins of Detroit for a small taste - http://detroityes.com/home.htm http://detroityes.com/home.htm - but it is the same story in many other cities). What the hell happened? Source for 1911 stats: http://query.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=9F07E5D91E3FE432A25754C0A9649D946395D6CF http://query.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=9F07E5D91E3FE... For 2006 stats: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_cities_by_crime_rate http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_cities_by_crime_r... And stats from England: http://www.parliament.uk/commons/lib/research/rp99/rp99-111.pdf http://www.parliament.uk/commons/lib/research/rp99/rp99-111....
  - smanek 18y ago
    My apologies - I was wrong. Thanks for the info, learn something new every day.

smanek 18y ago

"In 1910, inner city crime like we have today simply did not exist." Do you have any data to back up that claim? It's the exact opposite of any data I've ever seen ... I've been told that violent death rates are ~ an order of magnitude lower now than a century ago. Take a look at http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/steven_pinker_on_the_myth_of_violence.html http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/steven_pinker_on_the_myth..., for example. Hell, violent crime is down nearly 50% since the 70's (http://www.ojp.usdoj.gov/bjs/glance/viort.htm http://www.ojp.usdoj.gov/bjs/glance/viort.htm) when the gov. started keeping the numbers.

bokonist 18y ago
Murder rates by location: Baltimore 1911: 5.8 Baltimore 2006: 43.3 Philadelphia 1911: 4.4 Philadelphia 2006: 27.7 New York 1911: 5.9 New York 1990: 30.7 New York 2006: 7.3 Newark 1911: 4.0 Newark 2006: 37.4 Chicago 1911: 9.0 Chicago 2006: 16.4 Washington DC 1911: 7.8 Washington DC 2006: 29.1 England & Wales 1910: 8.1 England & Wales 1997: 14.1 In many of our great cities, murders increased by an order of magnitude. Only in New York, where the finance boom priced out the poor are homicide rates down ( the crime all went to Newark and other ring cities, which is the phenomena I pointed out in my original post). Pinker may be right about the middle ages to 1900. But he's dead wrong about the 20th century. The 20th century saw a millennium of progress get wiped away. Europe had two world wars that displayed levels of barbarism unseen since the Mongol invasion. Population explosions in Latin America, India, and Africa resulted in masses of people living in violent, malnourished, overpopulated slums. The great cities of the United States collapsed into burned out, dystopian ruins, which look like something out of the late Roman empire ( see The Ruins of Detroit for a small taste - http://detroityes.com/home.htm http://detroityes.com/home.htm - but it is the same story in many other cities). What the hell happened? Source for 1911 stats: http://query.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=9F07E5D91E3FE432A25754C0A9649D946395D6CF http://query.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=9F07E5D91E3FE... For 2006 stats: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_cities_by_crime_rate http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_cities_by_crime_r... And stats from England: http://www.parliament.uk/commons/lib/research/rp99/rp99-111.pdf http://www.parliament.uk/commons/lib/research/rp99/rp99-111....
- smanek 18y ago
  My apologies - I was wrong. Thanks for the info, learn something new every day.