London Riots: We Tried To Warn You

Anyone who is in anyway familiar with my posts will know I tend to concentrate a lot on income inequalities in the First World and how they affect society.

In particular I have often highlighted the fact that homicide rates (a proxy for measuring total crime) are most affected by income inequality:




People would also know that the U.K. has some of the worst income inequality and social mobility levels in the developed world. I have often pointed out that social mobility in the U.K. has collapsed. In the wake of the riots I can't help but feel vindicated.

Now, a disclaimer. I am not making any comment on whether or not the rioters should or should not have rioted. I am not questioning whether or not this was the 'right' response to income inequalities or anything else. It remains criminal behaviour.

What I am saying however is that certain economic conditions result in predictable effects. In this case, income inequality and low social mobility result in an underclass which is waiting to explode. The spark in this instance was the shooting of Mark Duggan but that was by no means the gunpowder that had steadily accumulated.

In the wake of the riots I decided to see what the levels of income inequality were like in London and here are some informative graphs:





Now queue posts regarding 'liberalism'.

A Predictable Mess

 

For anyone interested here is a PDF regarding income inequalities and poverty in London from 2002. I am beginning to read it now:

London Divided: Income Inequality and Poverty in the Capital

 

Do you know if the areas of London where the rioting was present were more unequal then other areas? Just curious.

 

I don't know very well, but I think that the areas that were rioting are suburbs very poor, and the inequality and high unemployment are usual.

 

These kids are NOT starving to death.

These kids have clothes.

These kids have teles

These kids have cell phones.

The only thing these kids don't have is jobs and that's a problem endemic to all the western world just about.

The UK has lavish social welfare programs that should work to keep the poor from being desperate.

I don't understand what you "income inequality" specialists expect to happen? Are there laws supposed to be made that confiscate the wealth of people or what?

I'm so sick of hearing "oh no, we're not socialists! We're not commies!" but then they turn around and back authoritarian measures to confiscate and redistribute wealth of business owners and the productive to the unemployed and overindulged masses.

 

London itself is more unequal than most of Great Britain. This means that the class differences are very evident to the people there and so we see the poorer communities in London rioting (of course later it spread to other cities).
Here are the most unequal cities:

MOST UNEQUAL 2004
Manchester
Bristol
Liverpool
Birkenhead
Middlesbrough
Leeds
London
Birmingham
Nottingham
Newcastle

MOST UNEQUAL 2007
Manchester
Blackpool
Liverpool
Birmingham
Bradford
Middlesbrough
Birkenhead
Newcastle
Coventry
Nottingham

Of these London, Manchester, Liverpool, Birmingham, Nottingham and Bradford were involved off the top of my head. EDIT: Forgot Bristol

It is the poorer, unemployed elements in unequal areas or cities that will riot.

 

Why are homicide rates in the U.S. and Canada directly correlated with income inequality?

EDIT: It is social position that determines mental health. This is confirmed in Apes and even humans. See the Indian Caste Experiment. There are also studies that show that Apes use more (provided) drugs when in a low status position and suffer from health problems but by putting them into a group where they are the alpha male these effects are reversed.
EDIT2: Also I am a market socialist although I use that term loosely because mainstream market socialism differs from my views.

 

Here is a more explicit example using the U.S., one can even spot the lag factor:





Clearly the more social democratic times of the 50's and 60's with their lack of major financial deregulation and corporate donations (among other things) outperform the neoliberal present.

 

The poor don't have the skills necessary to survive on their own. Only the welfare state allows them to keep body and soul together.

The era of Western dominance is coming to a rapid conclusion. As a result the entire West is becoming poorer. Welfare states can't be sustained any longer. There's not enough excess wealth produced to maintain an idle and indolent class of unskilled and uneducated people.

People without skills have no future. It's sad, but predictable.

 

Then why do the welfare states (mainly the Nordic countries) not suffer from this plight? Why is it only in the Neoliberal countries where welfare is kept as a hangover and a means to placate the poor that the underclass has no skills?

 

They aren't. But, it's nice to see the apologists on the left out trying to justify the rioting. The left-wing judges are doing their part, too.

We tried to warn you.

 

I have yet to see a Crown Court prosecution. So they are not judges who are presiding over the trials but lay persons with limited ability to pass sentence.

 

The strange thing is though, there are over 1300 apprenticeships which can't be filled in London. I wonder why none of the unemployed there are taking them up?

 

Lack of qualifications?

 

A lot of the vacancies were specifically aimed at people with few or no qualifications.

 

The nordic states THEMSELVES are the welfare state.

They simply are in debt as a country up to the eyeballs financing their programs which they then parade around the world as superior.

It would be the same as me buying an Aston Martin on credit, and driving it up and down your street saying "you should try this, but don't pay attention to my forthcoming bankruptcy".

 

What's the weekly dole pay these days?

 

How do you know they don't suffer from this plight? How are conditions in Malmo, Sweden? If one reads Fjordman one would believe that the rot is progressing in all the Nordic countries.

Often disease moves surreptitiously throughout the body and shows no symptoms or manifestation until it's too late. The era of the West is over, but that doesn't mean that pockets of a faded civilization won't remain as distant echoes of the past.

 

I'm not sure, having not been on the dole since my teens, but i think it's around £70 if you're over 25, and a bit less for under 25's.

 

Not nearly as much as the US is. In fact, for now the Nordic countries are in pretty good condition debt-wise.

They will have to make difficult changes to their programs in order to accommodate longer lifespans and rising costs though, which may provide a challenge for them. But the basic core will remain safe, I think.

 

Rasko,

Are you a COMMUNIST by chance?

 

yeah, cuz facts = communism, making bunk up and chanting "USA USA" = capitalism.

i dunno, the OP's facts seem awful solid to me.

the neo-mccarthyism, redbaiting stuff is getting SO old.

 

I despise communists.

 

Don't we all? lol

 

yes, and i'm sure you see them everywhere.