A world without criminality

Crime

It is quite rare for someone to steal something because they are without food. Most theft is to satisfy greed. Making a copy of your work is stealing. I could copy your private pictures and show them to who I like. You still have the pictures; nothing is lost. However, taking something without permission is theft. In any nation where businesses are taxed, people that steal, steal from everyone. The tool maker has had much of his stock taken. He is very annoyed. People are sympathetic. Sympathy is wonderful but helps very little. He deducts his losses from his tax account. He pays significantly less tax in that period. The other tax payers will have to make up the difference or the government will have less to spend. When you see someone stealing from a shop, they are taking from both the shop and you. You will, one way or another, pay more tax or receive less in the way of government support.

The tool maker will waste time dealing with the robbery. Time that he could have used making tools. He will revamp the security of his warehouse, costing more time and money. Crime is one of the biggest drains on an economy. We spend vast sums on policing, prisons, anti-theft devices, security locks, immobilisers, safes and so on. We could spend that money on so many other things that would make our society immensely better. Better for all. Nations could be, between ten percent and thirty percent, richer if crime were attenuated.

Prisons are very cheap. Prisons can be very effective. Murder rates have plummeted where leaders have imprisoned the bulk of the violent criminals. Less crime, more tax revenue. The greater the tax revenue, the more affordable prisons become. One may spend ten pieces of silver each month keeping someone inside a prison. That may seem expensive. However, if we factor in the cost of supporting them outside of prison, factor in the reduced damage, and factor in the increase in tax revenue, it is money very well spent.

In a nation with a high crime rate, spending ten pieces of silver on crime attenuation will lead to thirty pieces of extra tax revenue.