I'm saying that poverty is about relative> differences in access to goods and services.
If raping and stealing from others in the community were a direct consequence, I'd expect these to be widely practised, rather than being merely common enough to cause terror.
Why so? Why do you assume that a non-deterministic but statistical consequence has to have a high frequency? If there are multiple factors to a behavior, and say one results in only 2% of people being 'naturally' [whatever that means] supceptible to it, while poverty as a second factor results in 0.1% of middle-class but 1% of working-class people (that is 5% vs. 50% of supceptible people) exhibiting that behavior, then I'd say it is very much significant.
This amounts to a decapitation attack on groups outside the elite, operating on a generational time scale. Perversely, it is precisely the pursuit of equal opportunity for members of disadvantaged groups that reduces the power and opportunities of the groups themselves -- yet any other policy seems unjust.
That's a good point. Comes close to why I am against elite schools (now pursued in Germany). *Lunatic*, n. One whose delusions are out of fashion.
You make a good point regarding non-deterministic but statistical consequences. My remark was made off-hand, and not as the result of any long (and wrong) consideration.
What I had in mind (but didn't express) was a contrast between this sort of criminal behavior and rational, adaptive behaviors of the sort that one would find in groups at a similar level of material wealth, regardless of whether this level was or wasn't low relative to the rest of local society. These behaviors (e.g., shifting consumption toward inexpensive foods and clothing) are direct consequences, and are, of course, widely practised. Crime, in contrast, seems more related to relative that absolute wealth, and thus can't be seen as a direct consequence of the level of wealth per se. This, of course, ties back to your point regarding the importance of relative vs. absolute levels. Words and ideas I offer here may be used freely and without attribution.
