Wednesday, September 17, 2008
Working Criminal Class
The presidential campaigns talk about the middle class as if they needed saving every four years. The tax plans always talk about tax relief for middle America and their kitchen table issues. But no one wants to help the working criminal class.
Yet it exists behind the economic shadows of American life. Who are they? Small time criminal enterprises carried by folks who have regular jobs. What do they do? Transport drug paraphenalia, import prescription drugs, produce counterfeit tickets, grift rent from illegal immigrants, etc. All of this activity is done on small scale. Why do they do it? Well it isn't just money which would seem to be the incentive. For some of these guys, it's part f the thrill. Selling legitimate products just isn't enough. But in some cases it is the only way to pay bills. Especially when the regular 9 to 5 gig doesn't have health insurance.
I can't imagine the logic behind risking personal freedom so a guy can sit in better seats at Dodger stadium. Or planning the length of one's vacation based on the amount of Hawaiian red one can sell among friends in New York. One guy had the nerve to turn a 6 hour Tokyo layover into a temporary marketplace for Valiums @ $3 each.
Most of this may just be talk. But I remember my Russian friends from the 1980s tell me the real Soviet economy was run out of the trunks of taxi cabs. And America has lots of taxi cabs.
Yet it exists behind the economic shadows of American life. Who are they? Small time criminal enterprises carried by folks who have regular jobs. What do they do? Transport drug paraphenalia, import prescription drugs, produce counterfeit tickets, grift rent from illegal immigrants, etc. All of this activity is done on small scale. Why do they do it? Well it isn't just money which would seem to be the incentive. For some of these guys, it's part f the thrill. Selling legitimate products just isn't enough. But in some cases it is the only way to pay bills. Especially when the regular 9 to 5 gig doesn't have health insurance.
I can't imagine the logic behind risking personal freedom so a guy can sit in better seats at Dodger stadium. Or planning the length of one's vacation based on the amount of Hawaiian red one can sell among friends in New York. One guy had the nerve to turn a 6 hour Tokyo layover into a temporary marketplace for Valiums @ $3 each.
Most of this may just be talk. But I remember my Russian friends from the 1980s tell me the real Soviet economy was run out of the trunks of taxi cabs. And America has lots of taxi cabs.
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