[lbo-talk] Low Life (was "Come friendly bombers" )

Nathan Newman nathanne at nathannewman.org
Fri Jul 15 14:54:32 PDT 2005


----- Original Message ----- From: "Doug Henwood" <dhenwood at panix.com>


> Nathan Newman wrote:
>
>>Wojtek-- while the terrorism/poverty connection is weak in regards to who
>>performs terrorist acts, it's pretty damn strong on who SUPPORTS it around
>>the world.
>
> Actually Krueger's paper reviews polling data among Palestinians. If
> anything, there's less support for "terror" attacks on Israelis among the
> poor and less educated.

I'm skeptical of polls among Palestinians and Lebanon, since there the conflict is so completely territorial; there is no question that nationalism is often as strong or stronger among elites as among the poor.

But I do remember Tariq Ali at one forum noting that in exactly the poorest regions of Pakistan where left organizing was strongest a generation ago, there the fundamentalist jihadists have their strongest concentrations of madras schools and militants.

So the Krueger paper is interesting but a bit beside the point to most issues of terrorism and global support.


>They review other studies showing no relation between unemployment over
>time and region and the incidence of hate crimes. There's evidence that a
>combination of rising educational attainment and declining economic
>prospects can lead to terrorism.

The connection of hate crimes and terrorism seems a little tenuous, although I understand the logic.

But the connection between general crime and poverty is well established. See this paper for some of the recent literature review: http://www.econ.upenn.edu/Centers/pier/Events/crime-ier-04-01-03.pdf

"Perhaps the most robust finding in this literature is the documented negative correlation between market wages and crime. While Grogger (1998) estimates that a 20% decline in the (youth) wage would lead to a 20% increase in the crime rate, Gould et al. (2002) document that changes in the wage can account for up to 50% of the trend in violent crimes and in property crimes. Recent studies by Raphael and Winter-Ebmer (2001) and by Gould et al. (2002) also indicate that there is a strong positive link between the unemployment and crime rates."

-- Nathan



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