I’m glad to hear Mr. Nader point out that the guest, Professor Abt, was ignoring economic factors. Mr. Nader speculated that this might cause a lot of contention, but as far as Klassik goes at least, I don’t consider Abt’s commentary to be entirely controversial. There has been a lot written about Boston in recent times, just as there was about New York City in the 1990s, and there is probably much positive to be said about Boston’s strategy in targeting organized crime and so forth.
Where Abt’s commentary falls flat is in the inference that the economic factors cannot be improved in the near-term. As we saw with the pandemic, when something is deemed to be an emergency, the national government can act quickly by putting austerity to the side and implementing meaningful, funded policy. While I believe the current US foreign policy failings are emergencies caused by the US’ own misguided foreign policy, nonetheless, the government has deemed Ukraine and Israel to be emergencies and has put austerity aside to fund what government thinks are solutions (not that Klassik is of the opinion the US’s solutions are actual solutions, of course, but that is not the point here).
If the national government wants to achieve full employment, that is completely achievable. There are no funding barriers preventing this. Educational priorities can be funded, healthcare (including mental health) priorities can be funded, and, perhaps to Abt’s benefit, community resources can be increased to have more productive crime reduction strategies.
Regardless if violent crime rates are lower now than before, the US ranks 148th in intentional homicide, which puts us around Zimbabwe, Yemen, and Russia in global rankings, and I’m sure most US citizens know that this is quite a sad position. Many, regardless of political orientation, might even deem this to be an emergency, like the Covid pandemic, even if it isn’t a new trend. It is hard to argue that anyone would be wrong for possessing that opinion. 148th! I’m sure many people care more about that ranking than the Olympic medal counts which the media loves to discuss.
Abt didn’t mention unemployment/underemployment during the Covid lockdown era as a possible factor in increased crime during that period along reduced crime rates as employment rebounded. Social science researchers are studying how the US’ Covid-era policies differed in outcomes versus countries which tried to keep people employed in their jobs versus the US approach of letting people become unemployed and then offering them a safety net. It’ll be interesting to see what the empirical research finds regarding that period.
According to current BLS statistics, out of the 50 states plus the District of Columbia, DC has the highest unemployment rate (https://www.bls.gov/web/laus/laumstrk.htm). Now, there are many flaws with the unemployment rate not factoring long-term unemployment and underemployment and, of course, comparing entire states to a very small area like DC is a bit of a folly. Regardless, there are economic factors with DC which must be considered in addition to the factors mentioned by Abr which might be a hindrance towards cleaning up crime in DC.
I’d also be curious to hear Abt’s opinion on why Springfield, MA has a violent crime rate that, as far as I know, rivals that of southern cities of a similar size. Also, one last comment, some of the factors Abt mentioned requiring CBT could potentially be caused by several layers of policy failures, including austerity and policing failures of course, rather than being anything ‘natural’. Could vast improvements in education policy, heath care policy, labor policy, environmental policy, and military policy, all of which can be funded through the national government, lead to much lower need for what Abt described?
8 homicides in Boston 110 homicides in Washington DC, why the difference?
I don't have a PhD in astrophysics, phycology , sociology, political science, nor addended to or have had the opportunity to be part of one of thoset in debt Harvard -McKinse,federal government grant sponsor programs .
But I have lived in both Boston and Washington DC .
In the early 60's I lived in Boston for 3 years as a student and staff member of a prominent university, I had a social life and many my friends were rich, poor, minorities and in today's terms many were "socially challenged" . I found that some of my poor non college friends socially challenged or not were smarter than my friends at MIT, Harvard , Boston University and the other 35 highly ranked universities in Boston
of all my friends I never met one that was involved in a crime or tried to take advantage of an unfortunate person down on his or her luck ,,, maybe it was the fear of the Boston strangler at the time on the prowel ?
A few years later i moved to Washington DC, Boston had great museums,, but Washington DC had the best collections . My first day in town while I was unpacking my car it was broken into , the worse I ever got in Boston was dents in the side of my car ( Boston parking spaces are too small for any size cars )
At the office I was told where to park and where not to live. People were friendly but you had to know them first ,, Boston had that Cheers feeling , in Washington DC you had to know some hot shot politician or you were a nobody. In Boston only your brains counted ,, and you got respect,
Maybe there aren't comments because the younger Substackers don't know what a hero you are, that they would get from what James Fallows wrote: https://fallows.substack.com/p/ralph-nader-looks-ahead-at-age-90.
This was my comment on that: "I wrote about this wonderful piece in my Substack today: 'Ralph Nader and I are on it about enoughness/ That there should be some limit on avarice and accumulation.'" https://suzannetaylor.substack.com/p/ralph-nader-and-i-are-on-it-about
Can we be friends?
I’m glad to hear Mr. Nader point out that the guest, Professor Abt, was ignoring economic factors. Mr. Nader speculated that this might cause a lot of contention, but as far as Klassik goes at least, I don’t consider Abt’s commentary to be entirely controversial. There has been a lot written about Boston in recent times, just as there was about New York City in the 1990s, and there is probably much positive to be said about Boston’s strategy in targeting organized crime and so forth.
Where Abt’s commentary falls flat is in the inference that the economic factors cannot be improved in the near-term. As we saw with the pandemic, when something is deemed to be an emergency, the national government can act quickly by putting austerity to the side and implementing meaningful, funded policy. While I believe the current US foreign policy failings are emergencies caused by the US’ own misguided foreign policy, nonetheless, the government has deemed Ukraine and Israel to be emergencies and has put austerity aside to fund what government thinks are solutions (not that Klassik is of the opinion the US’s solutions are actual solutions, of course, but that is not the point here).
If the national government wants to achieve full employment, that is completely achievable. There are no funding barriers preventing this. Educational priorities can be funded, healthcare (including mental health) priorities can be funded, and, perhaps to Abt’s benefit, community resources can be increased to have more productive crime reduction strategies.
Regardless if violent crime rates are lower now than before, the US ranks 148th in intentional homicide, which puts us around Zimbabwe, Yemen, and Russia in global rankings, and I’m sure most US citizens know that this is quite a sad position. Many, regardless of political orientation, might even deem this to be an emergency, like the Covid pandemic, even if it isn’t a new trend. It is hard to argue that anyone would be wrong for possessing that opinion. 148th! I’m sure many people care more about that ranking than the Olympic medal counts which the media loves to discuss.
Abt didn’t mention unemployment/underemployment during the Covid lockdown era as a possible factor in increased crime during that period along reduced crime rates as employment rebounded. Social science researchers are studying how the US’ Covid-era policies differed in outcomes versus countries which tried to keep people employed in their jobs versus the US approach of letting people become unemployed and then offering them a safety net. It’ll be interesting to see what the empirical research finds regarding that period.
According to current BLS statistics, out of the 50 states plus the District of Columbia, DC has the highest unemployment rate (https://www.bls.gov/web/laus/laumstrk.htm). Now, there are many flaws with the unemployment rate not factoring long-term unemployment and underemployment and, of course, comparing entire states to a very small area like DC is a bit of a folly. Regardless, there are economic factors with DC which must be considered in addition to the factors mentioned by Abr which might be a hindrance towards cleaning up crime in DC.
I’d also be curious to hear Abt’s opinion on why Springfield, MA has a violent crime rate that, as far as I know, rivals that of southern cities of a similar size. Also, one last comment, some of the factors Abt mentioned requiring CBT could potentially be caused by several layers of policy failures, including austerity and policing failures of course, rather than being anything ‘natural’. Could vast improvements in education policy, heath care policy, labor policy, environmental policy, and military policy, all of which can be funded through the national government, lead to much lower need for what Abt described?
1776 Unites - Building Trust uniting neighborhoods of Racine, WI - Bob Wilson A Pathway to American Renewal WOODSON CENTER
https://woodsoncenter.org
8 homicides in Boston 110 homicides in Washington DC, why the difference?
I don't have a PhD in astrophysics, phycology , sociology, political science, nor addended to or have had the opportunity to be part of one of thoset in debt Harvard -McKinse,federal government grant sponsor programs .
But I have lived in both Boston and Washington DC .
In the early 60's I lived in Boston for 3 years as a student and staff member of a prominent university, I had a social life and many my friends were rich, poor, minorities and in today's terms many were "socially challenged" . I found that some of my poor non college friends socially challenged or not were smarter than my friends at MIT, Harvard , Boston University and the other 35 highly ranked universities in Boston
of all my friends I never met one that was involved in a crime or tried to take advantage of an unfortunate person down on his or her luck ,,, maybe it was the fear of the Boston strangler at the time on the prowel ?
A few years later i moved to Washington DC, Boston had great museums,, but Washington DC had the best collections . My first day in town while I was unpacking my car it was broken into , the worse I ever got in Boston was dents in the side of my car ( Boston parking spaces are too small for any size cars )
At the office I was told where to park and where not to live. People were friendly but you had to know them first ,, Boston had that Cheers feeling , in Washington DC you had to know some hot shot politician or you were a nobody. In Boston only your brains counted ,, and you got respect,
Have things changed in Boston or Washington DC .?
8 homicides versus 110 ,,
What do you think makes the difference?
Have a great day my friends.
Did you listen to the episode? Professor Abt explains the difference with data and research that goes beyond the anecdotal.
Thank you!