Burglaries on the Decline in the United States : NPRAn unexpected benefit of cheap consumer goods... things get too 'cheap' to steal.For almost 20 years, Mathis burglarized homes to support a drug habit. He only got caught a few times. Mathis says he stopped breaking into homes because there's just no money in it anymore.
"If you're going to do a burglary, you need to have some buyers," Mathis says. "Everybody has everything now."Mathis says there's just too much on the street already. Everyone he knows already has a digital camera, iPod knockoffs and pirated DVDs shipped in from China.
"And if it's not new, a lot of people don't even want to fool with it," Mathis says.
Forget about last year's video games and old laptops, Mathis says. And don't even bring a VCR or boxy TV to the street.
Funny thought, though - if the economy was tanking, wouldn't we see burglaries rise?
J.
Comments (6)
That was SUPPOSED to be one of the benefits of True Communism; make everything so inexpensively that everyone could have anything they wanted. Oddly, Communism never accomplished this...
Posted by John C. | March 25, 2008 12:12 PM
Posted on March 25, 2008 12:12
Why would anyone take the rationalizations of a man robbing houses to feed a drug addiction seriously? Cash found in a house can’t be spent? Jewelry or watches can’t be fenced, because ‘everybody’ already has too much? NPR, among the factors they do cite for a decline in burglaries, do not mention one home possession that might actually have an impact on the Mathises of the world: A handgun.
Posted by RNB | March 25, 2008 12:21 PM
Posted on March 25, 2008 12:21
Welcome to the era of Moore's Law: everything gets better, cheaper, faster. Diamonds may last forever, but they will *never* run World of Warcraft at 30 fps with anti-aliasing.
Not *ever*.
I'm pretty sure the actual cash resources (as in spendable bills and coins) in this household will not top $200 and most likely has problems topping $120. No jewelry to speak of... this is a benefit of electronic cash exchange: it removes money from being a physical commodity that can be pilfered and shifts it to an electronic one of manipulation via software. That takes either skill or corruption to do, or both. Most of the other 'stuff', including the old TV set (only 5 years old now!) and all the computers wouldn't garner you more than a few hundred fencing them... if you could *lift* them. I can buy more computer power and storage now on a UMPC *and* play World of Warcraft on it. Plus it would be a telephone. And GPS receiver.
Literally, anyone breaking into this household will find themselves either getting a hernia (love those SuperMicro SC-750A cases!) or trying to figure out *where* the valuables are... we don't have any. And most drug addicts don't seem to keep a great work-out schedule...
Most of the 'poor' people in America have: a color TV, telephone, cable, refrigerator/freezer, VCR, microwave oven, regular oven, washer, dryer, dishwasher, indoor plumbing, cell phone, and relatively inexpensive food with which to get obese upon. Plus two cars per household.
Just do a quick mental inventory of your house and figure out what is *worth* stealing from the 'it can be fenced, immediately, for 25% of its current value'.
Welcome to the world of Moore's Law which outdoes NASA: better, faster and cheaper. All three!
Posted by ajacksonian | March 25, 2008 8:52 PM
Posted on March 25, 2008 20:52
AJacksonian...
Hmm.
Figure a 5 minute stretch in our house, looking for valuables....
They MIGHT find the money the little guy keeps around. And the change in the bowl on my dresser. My lovely bride doesn't go much for diamonds and pearls. The guns - well, a deadbolt takes time to get around...
Computers? It is to laugh. Two, no... three patchwork ones. CRT TV, 6+ years old. 2 year old Samsung DVD 'home theater' setup, that cost $120 when new. (We takes our hi-fi seriously around here, we does!)
Then there's the basement. IF they knew where to look, they might find the diamond. But it's a quarter-carat one, loose. In a file cabinet. Under a LOT of dust.
You know, we just don't have much that'd be worth ripping off... Maybe the silver, and the china... but that assumes they'd take the time to grab it and then try to fence it.
No, they'd probably just grab a couple bottles of wine and boogie on to the next place...
J.
Posted by JLawson | March 25, 2008 9:54 PM
Posted on March 25, 2008 21:54
Ron -
If your main lookout is for items that are high-value, easily portable, easily found, and easily fenced - becoming a thief becomes a lot harder if you can't find easily-portable high-value items. Cell phones are cheap. Ipods are cheap. TVs aren't worth ripping off. Stereos? Har. Batteries (AA and AAA) might be worth grabbing, though.
Cash and jewelery... if easily found, yeah. If not? If you don't have the time, you won't be looking.
J.
Posted by JLawson | March 25, 2008 10:06 PM
Posted on March 25, 2008 22:06
Oddly enough, the thing most valuable to a burglar, small, easy to carry and easy to fence for enough money to be worth stealing, is the aforementioned handgun; firearms, particularly handguns, and prescription drugs are the most easily-fenced things in a modern house.
Posted by John C. | March 26, 2008 7:22 AM
Posted on March 26, 2008 07:22