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How the Plummeting Price of Cocaine Fueled the Nationwide Drop in Violent Crime

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Re: How the Plummeting Price of Cocaine Fueled the Nationwide Drop in Violent Crime

#101

Post by pavel_lishin »

defen wrote: post #63
powertower wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Ending the WoD? That's only what, about one-third to one-half of all law enforcement (and the prison system)? Do you realize how many jobs there are at stake here. Of course I've got my tongue in my cheek, but you do see the problem with the problem of ending the war on drugs?

Solution: anyone who is going to lose their job because of the end of the war on drugs just continues to receive their current salary until their Social Security retirement age, regardless of whether they take a new job or just stop working. It's the only way you'll get buy in from the lower levels of the prison-industrial complex, and ultimately cheaper than continuing what we have now.

> It's the only way you'll get buy in

I don't agree. What you propose would stop the growth of the industry; who in the industry would agree to this, except the very lowest bottom-of-the-barrel employees, like the night-time guards?

Re: How the Plummeting Price of Cocaine Fueled the Nationwide Drop in Violent Crime

#102

Post by pavel_lishin »

orangecat wrote: post #79
liquidcool wrote: post #61

What I'm most curious about is what keeps the demand for drugs in the US so high? If the demand dropped off, so would the supply, prices, and number of criminals. I recognize that I'm a deviant on the other side - I abstain from drugs, alcohol, and smoking. A bias for optimum brain, liver, and lung capacity/health seems like the rational choice. So why do so many forgo that? More pointedly, why do more Americans forg…

I recognize that I'm a deviant on the other side - I abstain from drugs, alcohol, and smoking. Same here and for similar reasons (although I still strongly oppose the WOD). But at least with alcohol, I'm pretty sure the optimal amount isn't zero in our current society. Not drinking has definitely interfered with my social development, which wasn't great to begin with. I don't plan to start now--among other reasons I…

> I don't plan to start now--among other reasons I can't stand the taste

I'm not trying to pressure you into drinking, but there are a lot of different kinds of alcohol out there. I used to hate beer, but after a few months of starting off with hard ciders, I've actually found some whose taste I really like. Same with liquors - some stuff I absolutely will not touch because the taste is actively unpleasant to me, but some tastes great.

You just have to find out what you like, if you're interested.

Re: How the Plummeting Price of Cocaine Fueled the Nationwide Drop in Violent Crime

#103

Post by fleitz »

dfc wrote: post #68
fleitz wrote: post #66

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Its fruit of the forbidden tree. Look at drinking, North America is one of the few places where binge drinking has large appeal. Creating a banned books like is creating a reading list. Simply by making something illegal you give it appeal. Once legal most people realize that whatever it is that was banned is actually pretty boring.

The US is not a big drinking country per capita: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_alcohol_co... What is your evidence for your binge drinking statement? And what is your definition of binge drinking and large appeal.

The evidence is personal experience. I'm not trying to publish a peer reviewed article, just convey personal experience that may be insightful to others as to why things appeal to people.

If you'd like to run a study to falsify my hypothesis you're welcome to, posting vaguely relevant stats is not such a falsification if you want to go all theory of knowledge on my statement.

It's the idea that to a large segment of the populace that when they turn the age of majority they should go consume large amounts of alcohol simply because their now "of age". Or that when they consume alcohol before the legal age they should consume as much as they can because they may not get the opportunity again in the near future.

Instead of looking at alcohol consumption per capita you'd probably want to look at alcohol poisoning per capita near the age of majority. (I have no idea what the stats on that actually are). In my personal experience not too many people consistently binge drink much past the legal age for drinking (because they discover it's actually quite boring).

Re: How the Plummeting Price of Cocaine Fueled the Nationwide Drop in Violent Crime

#104

Post by william42 »

MichaelApproved wrote: post #85
powertower wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Ending the WoD? That's only what, about one-third to one-half of all law enforcement (and the prison system)? Do you realize how many jobs there are at stake here. Of course I've got my tongue in my cheek, but you do see the problem with the problem of ending the war on drugs?

Theirs a similar problem with putting in a flat tax. You'll have lots of accountants and their employees being out of work.

Well, except for the part where calculating income is still as difficult as it was. Somehow, I don't think the piecewise linear function that is progressive taxation is the cause of the difficult parts of the tax code.

Re: How the Plummeting Price of Cocaine Fueled the Nationwide Drop in Violent Crime

#105

Post by Duff »

bestes wrote: post #16
rationalbeats wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It hasn't changed much because it is working great for a very well connected sub-set of our society.

Who are those people? Politicians? (serious question)

Cops. District Attorneys. Prison Guards.

Lots of folks.

Re: How the Plummeting Price of Cocaine Fueled the Nationwide Drop in Violent Crime

#107

Post by speleding »

The article claims lower prices mean less profit / less incentive for dealers, and that sounds logical, but I would think that an important knock on effect is that the incentive for corrupt police officers is lower and there is less money available to buy off politicians/judges/contract killers/etc.
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