| joesampson said: This table is from http://www.ucrdatatool.gov/Search/Crime/State/RunCrimeStatebyState.cfm. There were no further years available but as you can see the violent crime rate has been steadily declining since 1991. If your theory were to hold up and if in fact the income inequality gap has continued to expand for the past 30 years, than why has the violent crime rate decreased since 1991. This throws quite the wrench in your theory. While I am not prepared to make a full fledged argument here, I would argue that one possibility is that income equality is not the same as quality of life equality. While it may be true that nominal and/or real income inequality has increased, quality of life equality has stayed on par or has improved due to technology and globalization. While merely anecdotal, it is somewhat visible to a casual observer how many in the middle class have luxuries and living standards unimaginable for prior generations. Cellular phones/smartphones, GPS in non-luxury line vehicles, even the focal point of this website, video games, can be seen as luxuries that help negate any possible income inequality thus reducing violent crime rates. |
Yes and no. While Gini coefficent has been rising in the US. Individual Gini coefficent actually hasn't been.
The average person isn't getting richer. It's just households are getting richer then other households due to things like the rich being more likely to marry the rich, single income families etc.
Granted though that does more or less throw a kink in the current analysis.
