CoffeeHousers have been generous in their response to my post on the need for an inquiry. I thought
I’d respond in a post, rather than the comments.
1) Why rush to think that poverty is the problem? Rhoda Klapp raises this very good point. In 1996, American academics looked at various riots round the world since the war –
I’d urge CoffeeHousers with a serious interest to read the report here). They found “little evidence that poverty in the
community matters” – ie, there are much poorer cities, where people don’t riot. Other factors matter, mainly risk versus reward. I used this study as when writing the leader for this week’s magazine. I trust that conclusion – drawn,
as it is, from studying several riots – rather than the general hunch of a politician, which is, right now, pretty much all we have to go on and it’s totally inadequate basis from which
to formulate policy.
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