Why Crime Rates Are Going Down While HealthCare Premiums Are Going Up

For the past 30 years (and I suspect for even longer) all kind of crime rates have been falling constantly, year after year. How could this be so? Violence is, afterall, a biologically trait of our species.

The answer lies in incentives. There are circa 1.1M law enforcement personnel whose main incentive is to stay alive long enough to collect the check at the end of the month. By far for a police officer, and for that matter everybody else, the best way to stay alive is to avoid conflict. But given the nature of the job, avoiding conflict might not be an available option at all times. What they can do is reduce the chances of being in a conflict by reducing the overall crime activity. So they get into the business of surveillance, profiling, preventive detention, restriction orders, cyberspying and so on. From the time a police officer wakes up to the time he goes to sleep his mind is laser focused on preventing crime, at all cost.

Now enter the politicians. From mayors to governors to the President, the reduction of crime is always a leitmotif of their campaign, you will never find a politician saying that the crime rates are too low and we need a little bit more. Politicians like policemen, for completely different reasons, do not want you to be shot or robbed. They really don’t.