by Phillip Torsrud

As America has floated its economy on a pool of debt these last couple of years, criminals have taken notice.  Why rob, deal dope, or steal when you can max out a couple of credit cards for thousands of dollars.  This is much more than your average heist will net, and with much less risk.  Nobody is going to shoot you in the ass while leaving Best Buy with thousands of dollars worth of electronic gadgets you charged on a credit card you had no intention of paying.

No wonder crime was down for so long!  Why bother even trying to figure out an elaborate caper when all you have to do is check your mailbox for the latest credit card or loan offers.  "You might get in trouble," you might say.  Criminals, by nature, take risks.  What might surprise most people is that some criminals are smart enough to take calculated risks, you need look no further than Wall Street to find numerous examples.

While our media perpetuates the stereotype that criminals are dumb, some are in fact quite intelligent.  While our glorious penal system makes no effort to identify and work with those with potential to ensure they use their gifts to benefit society, it does not mean that those people don't exist.  Furthermore, it doesn't take much of a criminal genius to follow the example of the smarter criminals.  Before stealing, borrow-borrow-borrow!  Especially when it's so easy.  Believe it or not, when criminals walk out of prison, the credit card companies beg them to take credit cards.  They educate them to the "benefits" of their use!

I don't think that the doped up hypes you see on the news or Cops accurately reflect the majority of the criminal population.   With a prison system already packed with people in for more violent crimes, borrowing/stealing money does not carry much risk of going to prison.  The system cannot identify, without great difficulty, who borrowed without any intention of paying, and who couldn't pay because of unexpected health care costs, job loss, etc...  You would think with the billions spent on law enforcement in America, someone would have pointed this out to the credit card agencies.  However, this would contradict their other self-serving claims of success in driving down crime.

This loss of credit, as well as the degradation of our overall economy, will be contributing factors in the increase in crime that's coming.   All those prisons, police and laws we've added in the name of being tough on crime won't stop the consequences of blowing everything now and not investing in our future.  Both individuals and government are guilty, and the mask that our government has placed on America's credit card problems is finally being lifted.

Please go to www.crimeandculture.com to see my books Essays of a Penitentiary Philosopher and Preemptive Strike and read my other blogs.