4 ms·

A lot of Americans have no frame of reference for what you're describing because they've never lived somewhere where "dangerous parts" of the city dont make up

A lot of Americans have no frame of reference for what you're describing because they've never lived somewhere where "dangerous parts" of the city dont make up a large part of it. My experience in Beijing/Shanghai was that some parts are ultra modern and other parts are run down, but even the run down parts don't feel dangerous and don't put you on alert for getting mugged/robbed. People in the US believe that it's all a strict mathematics/economics function where poverty=danger and nothing can be done about it, they've given up on the culture part of it and just enable the epidemic of junkie and needles and sketchy people take up large swathes of public space, especially on the west coast.

thaumasiotes 5y ago
Well, compare the crime rate in a US city to the crime rate among Asians in the same city. Or any other US city. Chinese cities are populated by Asians. If an American city made that change and no other changes, the crime rate would fall to negligible levels.
- fwip 5y ago
  Could you blow your dog whistle a little less hard?
noona 5y ago
I don't think it is culture or at least not the permanent kind. Asia has plenty of crime. Quite severe crime, and organized crime, and personal crime. From what I've heard large Chinese cities used to have a lot more crime. You can still see the bars on the windows of older buildings. Just like it is hard to understand that these large cities are generally safe it is also hard to understand the amount of development that has happened. By now most would have probably heard the stories or seen the pictures of things like changing skylines. But it's different when you go there. Almost every year there is one or more projects completed that would have taken 10 or 20 years in western countries. And not just shopping malls but projects that actually do something. It's really hard to pessimistic with that kind of change despite being faced with a very real reality everyday. We used to speculate that China might be the best country to be born in today. Because it would take ~20+ years until you enter the workforce. And if the next 20 years are like the past 20 years you could do really well. That outlook has of course dimmed a bit since then. What I'm trying to say it that when people believe things will get better they don't want to give up their future. When things stagnant or getting worse people are hopeless they feel like they have nothing to lose. Crime seems to be factor of that. Maybe just not to those ending up committing the crimes but for everyone else as well. It's not surprising to me that some crimes and social unrest is on the rise in supposedly prosperous countries when everything is getting expensive, opportunities are getting harder to come by and those opportunities you do have count for less. If those at the top of society all act like there is no tomorrow, or that tomorrow doesn't matter, we shouldn't expect those at the bottom to act any differently. I can agree that this sort of culture, the one of acts and impressions, makes a huge difference.
refurb 5y ago
At least my experience living in Asia is that the crime and drug use still exists, the reason it looks cleaner is simply the police and government don’t tolerate it in public. Unlike the West, if you’re a drug addict in a lot of Asian countries you’re arrested and put in jail. Or sentenced to treatment which is basically jail for people with mental issues. Not sure we want to emulate that.

thaumasiotes 5y ago

Well, compare the crime rate in a US city to the crime rate among Asians in the same city. Or any other US city. Chinese cities are populated by Asians. If an American city made that change and no other changes, the crime rate would fall to negligible levels.

fwip 5y ago
Could you blow your dog whistle a little less hard?

noona 5y ago

I don't think it is culture or at least not the permanent kind. Asia has plenty of crime. Quite severe crime, and organized crime, and personal crime. From what I've heard large Chinese cities used to have a lot more crime. You can still see the bars on the windows of older buildings. Just like it is hard to understand that these large cities are generally safe it is also hard to understand the amount of development that has happened. By now most would have probably heard the stories or seen the pictures of things like changing skylines. But it's different when you go there. Almost every year there is one or more projects completed that would have taken 10 or 20 years in western countries. And not just shopping malls but projects that actually do something. It's really hard to pessimistic with that kind of change despite being faced with a very real reality everyday. We used to speculate that China might be the best country to be born in today. Because it would take ~20+ years until you enter the workforce. And if the next 20 years are like the past 20 years you could do really well. That outlook has of course dimmed a bit since then. What I'm trying to say it that when people believe things will get better they don't want to give up their future. When things stagnant or getting worse people are hopeless they feel like they have nothing to lose. Crime seems to be factor of that. Maybe just not to those ending up committing the crimes but for everyone else as well. It's not surprising to me that some crimes and social unrest is on the rise in supposedly prosperous countries when everything is getting expensive, opportunities are getting harder to come by and those opportunities you do have count for less. If those at the top of society all act like there is no tomorrow, or that tomorrow doesn't matter, we shouldn't expect those at the bottom to act any differently. I can agree that this sort of culture, the one of acts and impressions, makes a huge difference.

refurb 5y ago

At least my experience living in Asia is that the crime and drug use still exists, the reason it looks cleaner is simply the police and government don’t tolerate it in public. Unlike the West, if you’re a drug addict in a lot of Asian countries you’re arrested and put in jail. Or sentenced to treatment which is basically jail for people with mental issues. Not sure we want to emulate that.