82 shot, 14 fatalities, over the 4th of July weekend

[Nebuchadnezzar]

(02-03-2016, 12:48 AM)Sociopathicsteelerfan Wrote: By completely eliminating the economic incentive to engage in such crime.  Most gang crime is the result of attempts at controlling areas to distribute illegal drugs.  Without illegal drugs to sell the economic incentive disappears.



Utter drek.  You can only get people to risk their lives if they have something to gain by doing so.  Eliminate the monetary incentive and that no longer exists.  Your argument presupposes a need to engage in criminal activity among the poor that does not exist.  Put simply, most poor people who engage in crime do so because they make money doing so.  Eliminate that money and you eliminate the crime.


Quite the opposite, that's exactly what they'll do.  Hard to understand, but in a capitalist society accumulating wealth becomes the primary goal.  For those denied traditional ways, or at least perceiving themselves as such, they will pursue unconventional ways to do so.  Eliminate that way and they will be forced to find another path, pure logic dictates this.  As it stands engaging in the distribution of illegal drugs is an excellent way to currently achieve this goal, albeit temporarily.  No other criminal activity, available to street level criminals, is even remotely as lucrative.

Of course, this is all assuming that all illegal drugs are legalized and we know that will never.

I guess we have to ask, why are these kids selling drugs in the first place? 

It's not just because of money although that is the number one reason someone gets into illegal activity.

I just don't see how taking a group of people's income away will force them into the workforce when there are no jobs out there.

EDIT: Maybe it's like how business changes force people somewhere else. Like how the carriage maker had to change to something else because of the automobile. That makes sense then.