In the aftermath of the horrible murders that occurred near UCSB, a flurry of articles have been written on how to curb mass shootings and gun violence in America. Many on the left have once again proposed the need for universal background checks to keep guns out of the hands of criminals and the mentally unstable, but while
background checks have been proven to work, even if it passed the Senate it would almost assuredly be killed in the Republican-controlled House.
However, journalist Elizabeth Stoker recently wrote an article in The Week that proposes a great way to curb gun violence in our country that doesn't actually propose any new gun legislation. In short, Stoker argues that one of the best ways to fight gun violence is by reducing income inequality. More on how this could work after the jump.
While income inequality wasn't a worry for the UCSB shooter - he was after all going to a great college and driving a BMW at the time that he committed his atrocious acts - it can definitely be a worry for the thousands of other criminals that commit violent acts throughout the year.
The article points to a 2009 book entitled The Spirit Level: Why Equal Societies Almost Always Do Better, Richard Wilkinson and Kate Pickett in which the authors note that the majority of violence is committed by men between the ages of 15-29 and those acts of violence are primarily "attempts to ward off or eliminate the feeling of shame and humiliation — a feeling that is painful, and can even be intolerable and overwhelming — and replace it with its opposite, the feeling of pride." She goes on to say:
"Wilkinson and Pickett...analyze and plot murder rates among societies with differing levels of economic inequality and produce, unsurprisingly, troubling results: in less unequal societies (like England and Wales during the survey period) murder rates were markedly lower than those in societies (like Chicago during the survey period) with more pronounced inequality. Their conclusion is straightforward: since much of the violent crime we see among young men appears to be the result of the hopelessness and frustration brought on by the lack of status available to men at the bottom, strides can be made toward reducing the impetus for those crimes simply by raising the bottom up and reducing the gap between the worst and best off. A policy as simple as a universal basic income could accomplish that neatly."
Simply put, where there is vast income inequality, those on the lowest rungs of the economic ladder can feel the shame and humiliation of their lack of income the most, which could be one of the main reasons that those at that income level are more likely resort to criminal and violent acts.
Having grown up in a single parent household that was on one of those lower income ladders, I am fortunate that I was never tempted to resort to criminal or violent acts to support my family, but I can also see how someone at that economic level would resort to more criminal - and eventually violent - activities in order to not have to worry about the basic necessities of life. After all, you can only get so many late bill notices, eviction notices, or worry about feeding your family so much until you become desperate to not have to endure that anymore.
I've written diaries on a Universal Basic Income before and how a universal income of as little as $2900 a year (or $241 a month) for all non-incarcerated adults can not only cut the poverty rate in half, but could also boost our economy by giving lower income Americans more money to spend. However, this article takes it a step further by arguing that a UBI could help reduce the ongoing problem of gun violence in our country.
While something like this should be a bipartisan issue, Republicans will obviously take issue with it if the President were to support it, because let's face it, they will oppose anything the President is in favor of. But if Democrats can frame this argument in the right way, and manage to get the right Republicans on board, this could be a topic that could turn into a great election year issue, and eventually a viable solution for Washington to the gun violence in our country.