[bearl]

“With newer social services and things like the ACA, there's less reason to committ crime.”

Crime was certainly never driven by the cost of private health insurance. Rather, crime is driven by things like alcohol and demographics, policing or lack there of, surely not by aggregate health care spending lol.

[Arainach]

Medical debt is one of the most common kinds of debt in America. Debt and poverty are absolutely correlated to crime rates. So is anxiety over bills. Untreated mental or physical health issues can come into play as well.

[bearl]

I’ve known criminals, and a lot of people with huge debts, even known a few people who have had to declare bankruptcy. I assure you nobody is robbing or stealing or raping or killing people over medical debt. Student loans on the other hand…

[jacquesm]

Maybe. But they are definitely ending up on the streets, on drugs / alcohol and eventually in the morgue.

[gottorf]

> Debt and poverty are absolutely correlated to crime rates.

Correlation is not causation. In this case, the same factors that make one more prone to criminal activity also make them more prone to poverty; therefore, you cannot solve criminality by solving poverty, because the confounding factor is still present afterwards.

A man was released from prison after his murder conviction was overturned to great fanfare by the Innocence Project. He received $4.1m for his troubles. A few years later, he killed another man over a $1200 drug deal gone bad[0].

Do you really believe that people are committing crimes in order to make money to pay medical bills? Breaking Bad is a work of fiction.

[0]: https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2024/dec/06/philadelphia...

[const_cast]

> Do you really believe that people are committing crimes in order to make money to pay medical bills? Breaking Bad is a work of fiction.

I think the vast, vast majority of people are committing crime to make money, and I think your singular counter example, which isn't really a counter example, is worthless.

Yes, SOME people are just bad and will always commit crime. Some.

However, most criminals do it for monetary gain.

Why do people even sell drugs? Surely, if their goal is to be evil and just make a lot of people hooked on heroin, they'd just give it away for free right?

Well, that isn't their goal. Their goal is to make money.

[const_cast]

> Crime was certainly never driven by the cost of private health insurance.

Its a simple question - is crime motivated by money or not?

If you answer yes, then you're wrong - things like the ACA that lessen financial burden MUST lead to less crime over time.

If you answer no, then you're probably not reasonable. Who legitimately believes that crime isn't caused by money issues?

> crime is driven by things like alcohol and demographics,

Demographics absolutely do not drive crime, otherwise you have a broken world view. Being of a different demographic is a SYMPTOM, not the cause.

Being black does not cause crime, or being in a zip code does not cause crime. Being poor does, that zip code having poor education does, that zip code providing no opportunities does.

You're working backwards.