| sc94597 said: I mean, we shouldn't be considering vagrancy and larceny equal to murder and rape as "units of crime." The crimes that matter to most people (violent crime) are down, and in so much as vagrancy and larceny are up, it's almost certainly due to the increase in inequality. By the way, the median age of unsheltered homeless Americans isn't different from the median age of Americans (~39 years old.)
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I didn't say they were equal, certainly not for each individual instance. However, these other aspects are important when discussing the decrease of overall crime, which is what I was responding to. Particularly since some forms of crime that you are discussion (namely murder) have never been the largest source of crime.
As for the homeless population, it's interesting the US Department of Housing is reporting 39 as the median age when sources I've seen quote 45 and above. I discussed average (i.e. mean). Regardless, people over the age of 50 are the fastest growing homeless population, and, as trends continue, will skew the average and median as time goes on.
Edit: Also, the "increase of inequality" that you used as an explanation is precisely a reason why America isn't in a great place right now, which could very well be a reason why this WW2 veteran said what he said.
