Gangs, Billionaires and Anomie

A reply to Geriatric1927; my reasoning for the rise in gang culture and violent crime in Britain... or at least an extremely simplified version of it.

Category:

Education

Tags:

• gangs
• billionaires
• anomie
• dirkheim
• geriatric1927
• sociology

[frumpyframpton]

In the US we put off increasing minimum wage increases for several years and once they're fully in effect they still won't be living wages. The reasoning is that it hurts businesses to have to pay low level employees. Yet Home Depot manages to pay low wages and give it's CEO millions upon millions both in salary and severance. Stocks are plummeting and NYSE chairman Grasso got $190million in compensation. Congress authorized pay increases for themselves before minimum wage increases. Awful.

[GrandNarrative]

Oh absolutely, it makes you sick doesn't it? Did you see that documentary by Morgan Spurlock a few years ago where he and his girlfriend tried to live on minimum wage? Very interesting... they failed miserably of course.

The big problem with the on coming recession will not only be inadequate minimum wage, but low unemployment benefit... also unlivable.

[frumpyframpton]

Didn't see it, but am familiar with it. I realized a more relevant bit just now. A single mother a few years back was forced to ride the bus something like an hour away each morning to work at a mall that paid more than anything local. She spent so much time working and in transit she wasn't home much. Her teenage son ended up killing someone or something. The option was either properly raise him or eat. Good thing welfare forces you into minimum wage and isn't funded enough for childcare.

[GrandNarrative]

Would that be the story in Bowling for Columbine? Same deal, but it was a young kid only five or six who took his uncles gun to school and shot a little girl.

[bdfm89]

i agree, although in the UK we are all generally getting richer, the rich are getting richer alot faster that the poor. social mobility in he uk is now worse than it was in the 70's

[GrandNarrative]

Exactly; a country with a wide gap between rich and poor is an unhappy country.

[moshino21]

i luv this, u've actually help me out wit 1 of ma essays. take a bow, take a bow lol

[iwantit162]

you mention society there quite alot can you clarify something for me please?what is the name of this society every society has one ie the law society.when do you become a member of this so called society and when did you sign upto it and where is your membership?i cant ever remember joining any society or putting pen to paper to become a member lol just thought you seem smart shh an cute and thought you might have some of these answers lol

[frumpyframpton]

Crap, it could well be. I assumed I read it in the Washington Post but Bowling for Columbine sounds familiar as the source. I probably should have put more effort into finding that story instead of making up details as best I could remember, really shoddy work on my part =[

[mattfox06]

it looks like a depression is forming...the money is losing its potential....when poeple have that much money...they cant possibly spend it....so it doesn;t go bakc into the economy....the rich will get richer and the poor stay poorer......not much we can do .... we cant force people to spend thier money

[moob744]

So,the poor need to "pull their socks-up?"(rossuck123)

The Uk was "sold down the river"by Thatcher&Co,whole industries lost,(Society didn't exist!)communities suffered and "died",BUT,hey!some did PROFIT...good 'ole Private Enterprise! Council Houses sold-off(fewer built)bedsit-land prospers!(and homelesness)And so "the poor"turn for solace to drink,drugs...and gangs..True Socialism is about CARING about PEOPLE! rather than Endless "hog-in-trough"..GREED.

[halfdead44]

bdfm89, as a conservative I don't love the income tax. It's cruel to tax minimum wage earners on their income. Also, a surgeon who helps a lot of patients by performing many surgeries shouldn't be taxed at a higher rate than a surgeon who takes it easy and helps fewer. A national sales tax replacing the income tax might be better.

Tax accounting standards are separate from financial accounting standards. It's Congress who sets tax rules, based on "social policy" not on proper reporting.