The Consequence of Suppression: A Stronger Police Force does not Equal Less Crime

The other day I watched the movie Chappie. There was one scene that really caught my attention.

The city (and the premise of the movie) was based on the fact that the crime rate in this South African city was outrageous… 300 murders were happening everyday, people were being robbed, many civilians and policemen were being harmed, and the police force in place was not sufficient to handle the situation.

So then robots are created as part of the law enforcement department. Less causalities on the police side, as well as crime rates were dramatically going down.

*Spoiler Alert*

Then, mid-way through the movie- the robot police force gets hacked and a firewall gets put in, which basically stops them from working. The city is left without the robotic defense and all of a sudden, in one moment of this becoming common knowledge in the city – there is an uproar and the people take to the streets; riots ensue, there is burning of buildings, and stores, and homes. There is one scene shot from the sky as if in a helicopter, showing the drama happening in the downtown area, and it’s just like mad men finally set loose that have been caged for years. The destruction is over the top.

And this is what caught my attention. The consequence of suppression.

The crime in the city was suppressed through a robotic police force. There was no understanding of WHY people were acting the way they were or what causes it was stemming from. It was just simply accepted that as ‘human nature’ and attempted to force control and suppression onto the city and the people as a way of dealing with the situation.

And what happens when that control and suppression is removed? That which was attempted to be put down, smothered, in fact was slowing building, and getting bigger, and accumulating to the point where there is this so over the top acting out of dysfunctional behavior. The crime becomes much worse after the robot police fail to work, than before they were ever implemented.

And what does this reveal? 

Suppression or attempting to force control onto a situation such as high crime in a city does not work, as it does not sort/root out the REAL PROBLEM.

Which is also embedded throughout the whole move.

Money.

The lack of Money causes crime.

People commit crimes for money.

The desire for Money cause one to rob each other, to murder each other, to steal and abuse each other. 

All for the money.

Now, after seeing this, that this is what happens when one suppresses a problem, the solution seemed clear.

How about instead of creating a robotic police force, such as the scenario in the movie to be a solution to more and more crime, or a more military-like police force that enforces it’s mechanical hand onto the people - creating fear to control... one give the people the proper financial support to take care of their basic needs. 

Have a look - what would you be willing to do to ensure your own survival? Can you really condemn those that are stealing, lying, and cheating for more money so they can have a place to stay for the night, or to provide themselves something to eat? Have you put yourself in their shoes? What options are available?

Living Income.

A dignified living income, where if one finds themselves in a financial hard time, or in between jobs, or in a place where robbery or even murder come up as a potential option to make it through another day, they instead have the safety net of a living income. That is preventing crime as being an option for survival, as well as dealing with the REAL problem that cause crime and abuse in this world in the first place.

Lack of Money and Desire for Money leads to greed.

In greed, there is no compassion, empathy, or standing in the shoes of another. There is only self-interest and the drive for survival.

Investigate a Living Income by the Equal Life Foundation, as the Real Solution to the Crimes of Life happening daily. We don't need robots. We don't need stronger police forces. We don't need to attempt to control and suppress the problems manifesting daily at an exponential rate. We need to love and give to each other as we would love and give to ourselves. 

Let's stop suppressing, and trying to control ourselves and each other - let's root out the real problems and begin to address and heal the real issues we ALL face. 

Redemption and the Right to a Living Income

For anyone who thinks and believes that those that are unemployed, receiving assistance from the state or federal government, or living on the streets are lazy and no good, feeding off the system, I suggest you watch the HBO documentary, Redemption.

Here we watch people all over the streets of New York collecting bottles and cans as a way to survive. To them this is their full time job, walking block after block, day after day, going through trash that sits on the corner to collect all and any bottles or cans that can be recycled. Why do they do this? Because for each bottle or can, they can receive five cents. This seems hardly anything to be working so dam hard for, yet they are doing it. They are doing it with their children because they cannot afford childcare, and because they are extra hands to help out, they are doing it without sleeping, they are doing it to afford to live in a one bedroom apartment with seven other people. They are doing it because money matters in the fight for survival and is the only option available to them.

Before you assume to think these are people who put themselves in this situation, as if they deserved it,
think again and watch the documentary. These are people with degrees, who have worked for such companies as Microsoft, who worked at the World Trade Center, who fought in wars for 'our freedom', who cannot survive on the social security they receive alone.

These are people who are doing what they can to survive, because the harsh reality is that if you make one wrong move, you too can be put out on the street without a helping hand. And you will then see what it's really like to live for your survival. Money gives us a buffer, we do not see the extent to the consequence our system of life on Earth creates - because we did not pull the shorter stick.

Anyone who suggest that someone does not deserve a living income, a dignified life with the resource required to survive, simply because they are not working the job we define as 'acceptable' - put yourself in the shoes of another. What would you do to survive. Is your right to food, shelter, hot water, clean clothing more valid then someone who isn't working, or not doing a job we classify as normal? Would you be willing to walk the streets of New York, digging through trash bags in front of fine dining establishment, simply to ensure you can buy yourself a sandwich for the day? What does shame have to do with anything when it comes to survival?

I suggest anyone that has such a judgment on those that are down and out and willing to do ANYTHING to make a few bucks, to watch this documentary, to put yourself in their shoes, and to then ask the question, why are Human Rights not a RIGHT given to all, unquestionably?

Investigate the Living Income Guaranteed proposed by the Equal Life Foundation. The core principle is that all humans have unalienable rights to life - that means food, water, shelter, clothing, education. These cannot and should not be denied to anyone, whether you are not able to find a job, in between jobs, victim of layoffs, whatever - that no matter your situation, YOU have the right to a dignified life, and that you are not FORCED to sift through the rubbish of other humans to collect your income.

Is your Hourly Wage actually Less than What you Thought?

Currently in the United States, the Federal Minimum Wage is set at $7.25 an hour. A state is able to set the wage higher or lower, however, if the state minimum wage is set lower than the federal wage, than automatically the state's minimum wage is the federal wage. If the state decides to raise their minimum wage to be more than that of the federal minimum wage, than the higher of the two rates is applied.

Now an interesting thing - whatever your hourly rate is, is not actually what you are being paid.

Let's look at a practical example:

Say you are working in a position that pays minimum wage, which was reported to be about 4.7% of the working class in 2012. Doing the basic math, we can see that if you were to work 40 hours in one week, at $7.25 an hour, your gross pay would be $290 (40 x 7.25). Usually pay periods are every two weeks, so calculating the pay check to be expected for one pay period would be - keeping up with the 40 hour work week - you would gross $580 (290 x 2).

So that is a 'standard' paycheck for working 80 hours in one pay period. Yet here, you are not actually bringing home the 'minimum wage' set by the law as the federal requirement. The reason being, there are taxes that are then taken out for various purposes. Mainly, in the US, we have the OASDI and HI taxes which are the Social Security and Medicare taxes, sitting at 6.2% for OASDI and 1.45% for HI (Medicare).

So let's now remove these taxes from your taxable wages, which is what we calculated above, the $580.

The amount taken out for OASDI would be $35.96 (580 x 6.2%), and the amount taken out for Medicare would be $8.41 (580 x 1.45%). So taking into account these taxes that are being removed from your paycheck (35.96 + 8.41= $44.37), you would receive a total of $535.63 (580 - 44.37).

Once the taxes are removed and you are given your paycheck, the total hourly wage you are ACTUALLY "making", or is for you to support your life, is now at $6.69 an hour (535.63/80 hours). What this means is that after all is said and done, you are making lower than the federal minimum wage of $7.25 an hour, which is apparently set as a standard to ensure a minimum wage for all workers in the US. Yet we can clearly see here that we are not actually making that amount - we are making 56 cents less than that amount. One might say that is nothing to gripe about, yet it all adds up.

Now I'm not saying that we should not have to pay taxes or that 'taxes are the bad guys, and do away with taxes', what is clear here is that the Minimum Wage should be set as a rate that takes into account the taxes that are being paid. The Minimum Wage should be set at a rate in which, once the taxes have been removed, equals that of the Federal Minimum Wage, definitely not lower. I say definitely because it does not make any sense, why set a MINIMUM amount when one is actually making LESS than the MINIMUM amount?

We already know that the current minimum wage of $7.25 for an individual working full time, does not cut it in terms of actually supporting one financially, and then we see now that we are making even less than that. The point of the Minimum wage would to be to ensure that a minimum amount is guaranteed for ALL workers to ensure their ability to provide themselves the access to ALL Human Rights - food, shelter, water, education, health care, etc. The Minimum Wage is currently providing the most minimal standard of living and cuts people off from accessing a more dignified, comfortable life. No one should have to work more than 40 hours a week to survive, if they choose not to. No one should have to work more than one job to ensure they are making more than the hourly minimum wage rate. No one should have to be forced into positions where they are stuck, doing what they can, just in order to put food on their table and a roof over their head. This should all be guaranteed, because it is a human right.

No one should have part of their less than effective income be removed to then pay in to support others. It's not "Give and Get Less," it's "Give and you shall Receive." And so as we give, we should receive - a balance economy that is effective in supporting everyone - that is truly an advanced society; one that functions in harmony.

So the point I wanted to make here is simply that we are fooling ourselves in thinking the current minimum wage is doing it's job effectively, when we can see in the numbers above that the actual minimum wage is not the real minimum wage that goes to those that are working the hours.

Why not give a wage in which takes into account these other costs and yet still allows one a decent wage to live.

I will go more into various other perspective in regards to Minimum Wage in blogs to come. In the meantime - investigate the Living Income Guaranteed proposed by the Equal Life Foundation that recognizes the fact that we have lost sight of how to ensure a healthy and thriving population, which in turns provides a healthy and thriving economy. It realizes that a Living Income becomes more effective than a Minimum Wage and should be set to ensure a standard of Living that is Best for Everyone, because in the end, that is our Basic Human Rights.

Investigate, Question, Find Solutions... Till next time.

The Rights of the Children

When a child is born into this world... are their basic human rights provided to them? Are they ensured that they will be cared for properly? Are they ensured that they will have a home, health care, food and parents that are in a position to effectively support them in growing up in our world? Some yes - those with Money; money is currently the determining factor of what kind of life you live and whether you have access to any form of human rights. However, many no - because many within our world are not guaranteed money, and thus are not guaranteed access to basic human rights. Actually - no one is guaranteed basic human rights. We might think we are, and even the United Nations have so graciously placed words on a document saying that each and every human being does in fact have 'inalienable' rights as a human - that are the basic requirements in order to live a decent life on Earth. But is this guaranteed? No because money is what buys us that, and again, not all have access to enough in order to actually provide it for themselves. Basic Human rights are implied to be given freely, to All, as an understanding of what is required to survive in this world, and yet - this is not given.

The only guarantee that we have is if we make enough money, then we can buy ourselves the comforts that shelter us from a World that does not support any one's Basic Right to Life.

And children are victims in our World and this acceptance.

Children are born into a world where the parents have no clue how to raise them, as they were raised by the generation before who had no clue how to raise them, and before them the same and so a pattern has been repeated throughout time, as parents are simply the product of a world that does not actually care enough to Live the Words it speaks or writes - as we have the words placed - we see what is necessary for a Human to be able to Live and yet it is not implemented. It is not enforced. It is simply there, in the background without action. And thus parents are teaching, as they have been taught, to not ask any questions and simply accept our World to be the way it is - where some are fortunate and others are not.

Do we have any right to bring a Child into this world? While so many children that are here are not being provided their basic human rights? Isn't it our responsibility to ensure that ALL humans are given their rights to life - actually their ABILITY to live - should we not first ensure this is a reality for all before we continue to bring children into this world that does not prove that it can support them?

Obviously children are going to be born into this world - we will not stop that, however then we MUST consider preparing a reality that is best for them. Surely that is what we would like for ourselves? I mean, have we stood in the shoes of the children? Wouldn't we want to be supported with proper health, diet, a family unit that can create a stable human and not an emotional, self interested consumer that continues to not care about this world? Wouldn't we like to be able to be educated? Wouldn't we like the opportunity to express and explore what this real world - the natural world, has to offer? Wouldn't we like to be able to take care of ourselves? Wouldn't we like to be able to live a fulfilling life where ALL our basic rights as a human are met and provided for? Surely we would - so why are we not ensuring that this is a reality? Why do we think we can continue to ignore the fundamental problem of our society - that no human rights are being offered or given and millions of children are continued to be allowed within this world without assuring any kind of safety or future for them. In fact - the future we are currently creating for the children to come is of misery.

Time to become responsible and get out of the 'now' of what is right in our immediate attention and consider the consequences of our lack of action. What kind of future are we possibly creating from where we are currently standing? It is clear, one that is NOT best for our children, or for ourselves and each other.

Investigate the Equal Life Foundation as an Organization actually providing a solution to our World and the Problem that we currently face - Children without Basic Human Rights. Become an advocate for Life and give your Life to ensure we leave a place worthy for the Children to come. Stand in the shoes and realize you would want this for yourself.

Human Rights for Children by Bernard Poolman: