Mold Theory

Money is the bread by which the mold known as "social ailments" grow on.

That's about as far as I could figure it.

You see, the solution to any social ailment tendered by the left always, ALWAYS consists of spending MORE MONEY on it.

Schools suck?

Spend more money on it.

Health care sucks?

Spend more money on it.

Crime sucks?

Spend more money on it, as long as it's community centers and not cops.

But as far as I can tell, we're just adding fuel the fire with the full expectation that it's going to be put out.

So what I did was chart social spending (minus SS and Medicare) against two crime rates;

Offensive and property crimes.



And shucks howdy, what do you know. It seems government spending on the vast and unending bevy of social programs doesn't actually HELP abate or end these social ailments, but rather FEEDS IT!

Alas, this should come as no surprise when you do not punish people for their criminal behavior, but rather ignore them, borderline reward them with "treatment programs," "free housing," "free health care," and "touchy feeling puppies and bunnies feel good programs."

Of course, there are certainly other factors driving crime and people's lack of stewardship for society. One could make the argument that the dramatic increase in crime over the 60's and 70's was when the World's Most Spoiled Generation entered adulthood and fumbled the ball while voting themselves a boost in social spending to avoid getting real jobs and producing wealth.

One could also make the argument that crime is more driven by economic growth (or contraction) than government spending as you see a rise as we approached the Volcker Recession and then a drop off with the 20 years of basically uninterrupted economic growth to today.

Regardless, one thing can be deduced from this chart;

Government spending on social problems has, if any, a perpetuating effect on social problems.