* Property theft (like burglary, larceny-theft and motor vehicle theft):
$16 billion/year
* Telemarketing fraud:
$40 billion/year
Clearly, things are blown out of proportion. Some people actually
[WS:] This is a prime example of the left's utter cluelessness - the abysmal failure to grasp the basic fact that victimization is not about money, but about dignity. A person can give generously to what at the end of the day may prove to be a phony or fraudulent cause, but he/she will be indignant when a $10 item is stolen from him/her or even from someone else and he/she did not suffer economically Why? Because in the first instance the person lost only money, but in the second instance - he/she lost his/her dignity because his/her personal space has been violated.
Every crime has two dimensions: economic and personal. Crimes that are high on the economic dimension but low on the personal dimension - are generally viewed are minor and forgivable. People generally disapprove stealing - but if one steals form his employer or from the government, there is no personal dimension to this crime - no identifiable person was victimized. Robbery, by contrast, has a relatively low economic dimension but extremely high personal dimension - as an identifiable person is brutalized and violated in the most extreme way - and that is what most people find extremely revolting.
That is why $40 billion fraud does not matter, but the $16 billion property theft does - because it is not about money, but about victimization of human dignity. Of course, that does fit the left's party line that criminals are the victims, and that is why otherwise intelligent people miss the obvious end engage in convoluted casuistry to hold the party line. (PS. Please spare me the lawyerly spiel that criminals themselves were victimized as children, had to walk to school uphill both ways, or become "temporarily insane" - this is not only bullshit as defined by Harry Frankfurt, but also a non-sequitur.)
If there is a single item that is going to sink the left and its party line - it is the attitude toward crime. Most people, including this writer, see crime with a high personal dimension as a serious threat - and will go very far to protect themselves from that scourge. Sometimes even too far, as the public attitudes toward torture of terror suspects suggests. Terrorism is another crime high on personal dimension but low on economic dimension - and that explains these public attitudes.
You can say what you want about this, but your party line has been and will be blown out of the water, not just in the US but in most other countries. No sane person, save a few cranks and blasé intellectuals will ever sympathize with those who in their view trample human dignity. This is yet another reason why I parted with the left.
Wojtek