posted
Back to Story - Help Armed killings cost nations billions of dollars By ELIANE ENGELER, Associated Press Writer 2 hours, 37 minutes ago
The United States leads the world in economic loss from deaths caused by armed crime, according to a global survey released Friday.
The U.S. registered an estimated loss of up to $45.1 billion in terms of economic productivity because of violent crimes, said the report by the U.N. Development Program and the Geneva-based Small Arms Survey.
At least 490,000 people are killed in armed crimes each year worldwide, placing a huge economic cost and social burden on nations, the report said.
The report did not give a country-by-country breakdown of the numbers of people killed in armed crimes.
But the report said that Colombia, El Salvador, Guatemala, Jamaica and South Africa are among the countries with the highest numbers of recorded violent crimes in the world.
More people are killed worldwide in violent crimes every year than in wars, it said, asserting that the phenomenon of armed killings and its economic impact on nations is largely underreported.
In the 90 countries surveyed, the economic cost from people killed by arms each year is estimated to total between $95 billion and $163 billion, according to the report.
"These estimates are based on calculations of the 'lost product' that is represented by premature deaths from armed violence," said Achim Wennmann of the Small Arms Survey.
"These people had they lived would have contributed as any other individual as productive members of society. Their deaths represent a loss that can be quantified," he told The Associated Press.
The cost arising from these deaths includes a wide range of expenses from medical care, legal proceedings, and lost earnings to lost investment, the 162-page report said.
Wennmann said the report was based on figures compiled by international organizations and national authorities. The most recent available statistics from all the 90 countries surveyed were from 2004, said Wennmann, one of the editors of the report.
He said they had more recent statistics from North America.
In 2007, the region lost up to $46.76 billion from armed violence, he said. The vast majority of that loss up to $44.8 billion occurred in the United States, said Wennmann.
Guatemala which has a high rate of violent crime but a smaller population and a much lower GDP than the United States the cost of armed violence was estimated to be nearly $2.4 billion in 2005, the latest year of data available, the report said. The figure includes health expenses, security costs, impact on investment and material losses.
Cecile Molinier, who directs the U.N. Development Program's office in Geneva, said armed violence is an obstacle in the fight against poverty.
"It tears apart the social fabric of communities, creates fear and insecurity, destroys human and social capital and undermines development," she said.
Among the 90 countries are nations from every continent, including Brazil, Canada, Colombia, Ethiopia, Japan, Mexico, New Zealand, Nigeria, Russia and the United States.
The report was written for the secretariat of the 2006 Geneva Declaration on Armed Violence and Development a document signed by 94 states that have pledged to work toward reducing the number of violent crimes.
The United States is not a signatory of the declaration.
Posts: 6008 | From: phoenix az | Registered: Mar 2005
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quote:These people had they lived would have contributed as any other individual as productive members of society.
Well, we know that this report doesn't apply to the United States. In the US, the majority of crime is deadbeat on deadbeat crime, and these criminals certainly are not "productive members of society".
Posts: 1577 | From: Ohio | Registered: Oct 2007
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The majority of crime that is acted on by the police "is deadbeat on deadbeat crime"..
We ignore real crimes that have really serious effect on society, mostly because we encourage our prosecutors to ignore crime committed by those who are capable of mounting a significant defense, particularly if they have sufficient power or funding or backing to mount a full publicity campaign again the officials.
Also, prosecutors soon realize that the rate of success in getting convictions from those arrest made is about all the public will see when reelection time comes round (particularly that part of the public that is of the right-wing). So, it makes perfect sense to them to do ones best to only allow "crime (that) is deadbeat on deadbeat crime" to come to fruition.
(Just look at the fact that dubya isn't being impeached and his various cronies are, essentially, guaranteed to go without punishment. Fat cats are immune!)
Posts: 11304 | From: Fort Worth, Texas | Registered: Mar 2005
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this is getting almost no mention at all while all of these financial institutions are in danger of collapse:
$10b for Enron victims 4:00AM Thursday Sep 11, 2008
HOUSTON - Enron shareholders and investors will split about US$7 billion from financial institutions accused of participating in the fraud that caused the once-mighty energy company to collapse.
The settlement amount was listed at US$7.2 billion ($10.8 billion), a sum that has been accruing interest since 2002 and includes US$688 million plus interest in legal fees.
Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott, who had previously filed court briefs in support of plaintiffs' claims, also objected to the fees.
"Attorney General Abbott continues to object to giving millions of dollars to plaintiff lawyers when that money should go to the hardworking men and women who suffered from Enron's demise," said Jerry Strickland, a spokesman for Abbott's office.
The fees are the largest in history in a US securities fraud case.
The distribution plan was part of a US$40 billion lawsuit filed by shareholders and investors, who claim Bank of America, JPMorgan Chase & Co., Citigroup and others participated in the accounting fraud that led to Enron's downfall.
-------------------- Don't envy the happiness of those who live in a fool's paradise. Posts: 36378 | From: USA | Registered: Sep 2003
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Remember, Both Delay and Gramm had a wife getting over $250,000 per year to be on but never attend meetings of the Enron board of directors.
(Let me see, now, do I recall correctly that someone with those two names are listed as principal advisers for the McCain campaign????)
Posts: 11304 | From: Fort Worth, Texas | Registered: Mar 2005
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quote:Crime in this country is accepted as long as it is done against the poor and it stays in the poors neighborhood.
That's true, but why? Why do the poor accept this nonsense?
why do the poor accept being poor?
this may come as a shock to you but the average IQ in the US is 100...
people with above average IQ's choose their life path (for the most part) people with IQ's above 130 don't really even need much training. they are basically able to do most any job and train themselves to do it...
people with below average IQ's need people with higher IQ's to "look out" for them, that's probably the largest part of Christ's Teachings....
-------------------- Don't envy the happiness of those who live in a fool's paradise. Posts: 36378 | From: USA | Registered: Sep 2003
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quote:Crime in this country is accepted as long as it is done against the poor and it stays in the poors neighborhood.
That's true, but why? Why do the poor accept this nonsense?
why do the poor accept being poor?
this may come as a shock to you but the average IQ in the US is 100...
people with above average IQ's choose their life path (for the most part) people with IQ's above 130 don't really even need much training. they are basically able to do most any job and train themselves to do it...
people with below average IQ's need people with higher IQ's to "look out" for them, that's probably the largest part of Christ's Teachings....
Come on glass. Don't shortchange those with below average IQ's. Heck, they can become President if they have enough money!
-------------------- It is impossible to make anything foolproof because fools are so ingenious. Posts: 3311 | From: St. Louis | Registered: Feb 2005
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The milk of human kindness is not a wholly ( or even holy) owned Christian property, contrary to republican propaganda.
Posts: 11304 | From: Fort Worth, Texas | Registered: Mar 2005
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quote:Crime in this country is accepted as long as it is done against the poor and it stays in the poors neighborhood.
That's true, but why? Why do the poor accept this nonsense?
why do the poor accept being poor?
this may come as a shock to you but the average IQ in the US is 100...
people with above average IQ's choose their life path (for the most part) people with IQ's above 130 don't really even need much training. they are basically able to do most any job and train themselves to do it...
people with below average IQ's need people with higher IQ's to "look out" for them, that's probably the largest part of Christ's Teachings....
Come on glass. Don't shortchange those with below average IQ's. Heck, they can become President if they have enough money!
Or if they get tied on to a campaign as a VP candidate and the old guy dies, like he probably would.
Did any of you notice that Spiro Agnew's experience when appointed by tricky Dick was about the same as Palin's now?
Didn't work out so well that time.....
Posts: 11304 | From: Fort Worth, Texas | Registered: Mar 2005
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Just listened to a news show on CNN telling how the current housing bubble was started by dubya's "ownership movement", which had, built in as a fundamental precept, a total lack and absence of regulation and oversight for the mortgage industry, guaranteeing that it would fail, not be recoverable except by the government taking over and using the public's money to buy it out of the inevitable bubble, then carving it into smaller unit and farming it out as several new privately held businesses, so that the public pays all loses and the really huge big time investor make a profit whether or not it i in recession or not.
Thus, I would add the absurd Utopian fiction of a fair and functional free market to your note that usury is to blame (and the shear stupidity of dubya and the quasi-repulicans ).
Posts: 11304 | From: Fort Worth, Texas | Registered: Mar 2005
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quote:Thus, I would add the absurd Utopian fiction of a fair and functional free market to your note that usury is to blame
The free market wasn't to blame. Quite the contrary, it was Bush's 'ownership movement' that encouraged banks to loan money to people who weren't qualified. It is also not the free market that is bailing them out. In other words, government interference with the free market caused the bubble and government interference has now bailed it out at the taxpayer's expense, or more precisely at every citizen's expense through the invisible tax of inflation.
Posts: 1577 | From: Ohio | Registered: Oct 2007
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You really are a nin-com-poop. Nin for ninny, com for completely irrational and poop for brains.
(Did ya ever check into what Keno sabe really means, Lone Ranger, did ya ever?)
Of course the free market is not "bailing them out", you dim....
We, the people, with our money are.
The free market does nothing responsible....ever.
The free market is a pie in the sky dream of simple minded fools, just like Communism. (Which, by the way IS NOT a synonym for socialism, just like "free market" is not synonym for "Ballanced Economy".)
Ha there been even little oversight on the free market, particularly th part th is the mortgage lending industry, this economy would not be the mess that it is.
Posts: 11304 | From: Fort Worth, Texas | Registered: Mar 2005
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Had the free market been allowed to work, the bubble would never have occurred. Even after it did, if the free market were allowed to work, the offending companies would have failed; the investors would have lost every penny; and a powerful moral message would have been sent that these risky business practices result in failure.
Posts: 1577 | From: Ohio | Registered: Oct 2007
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quote:Originally posted by Propertymanager: Had the free market been allowed to work, the bubble would never have occurred. Even after it did, if the free market were allowed to work, the offending companies would have failed; the investors would have lost every penny; and a powerful moral message would have been sent that these risky business practices result in failure.
it is true that Bush pushed the "ownership economy" but the driving force behind his "plan" was to reduce regulation thereby increasing the freedom of the market...
you now see the results...
it appears that you really don't understand why the market is failing...
nobody will lend each other moeny anymore because they don't trust each others colateral.
the FED is the only place that will lend money now...
that's free-market... free to decide not to lend...
i don't know how you manage to twist all this stuff around to make it sound good to yourself, but i assure you that people are laughing at you....
you claim to be a real estate mogul of some sort yet you don't even realise that the bailouts are there to keep the value of your real estate from being cut in half...
if there's a moral lesson in this, it's that lack of regulation leads to excessive risk taking.
and of course when X is taking a big risk, Y must take a bigger one to make more money; pretty soon? everybody is being stupid..
-------------------- Don't envy the happiness of those who live in a fool's paradise. Posts: 36378 | From: USA | Registered: Sep 2003
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quote:you claim to be a real estate mogul of some sort yet you don't even realise that the bailouts are there to keep the value of your real estate from being cut in half...
LOL! I have never claimed any such thing and the value of my rentals in the short term is totally irrelevant to me. If the value was cut in half, I would still make the exact same amount of money each month.
quote:if there's a moral lesson in this, it's that lack of regulation leads to excessive risk taking.
The moral lesson is that failing to allow the free market to work will result in a disaster each and every time.
Posts: 1577 | From: Ohio | Registered: Oct 2007
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quote:that either makes you a genius or a complete moron... hmmmm...
Thank you, but I think all conservatives understand that.
quote:If the value was cut in half, I would still make the exact same amount of money each month.
LOL... really? you might be a property manager, but you obviously aren't an owner. how much do they pay you?...
You clearly don't understand the rental business. Rents don't change just because the market value is up or down. In fact, the bad market for homeowners actually has improved the rental market (more renters, less owners). It's that supply and demand thing!
Posts: 1577 | From: Ohio | Registered: Oct 2007
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posted
You clearly don't understand the rental business. Rents don't change just because the market value is up or down. In fact, the bad market for homeowners actually has improved the rental market (more renters, less owners). It's that supply and demand thing!
LOL. actually i do understand. in the rental business all of your profits are in the property value... loss in property value is loss...
i suppose you took the one minute to real estate riches course and that was covered in the 8th minute
-------------------- Don't envy the happiness of those who live in a fool's paradise. Posts: 36378 | From: USA | Registered: Sep 2003
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quote:in the rental business all of your profits are in the property value...
Property value won't even buy you a bag of McDonaldland cookies(unless you sell the property)!!! The profit is in the CASH FLOW and that doesn't change with the property value. You better stick to blowing glass - hopefully you have a better understanding of that business!
Posts: 1577 | From: Ohio | Registered: Oct 2007
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-------------------- No longer eligible for government service due to lack of tax issues. Posts: 5178 | From: Up North | Registered: Dec 2005
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The profit is in the CASH FLOW and that doesn't change with the property value.
cash flow sounds nice...
but i look at the bottom line.
you claim you've been doing this for four years and you have several dozen properties...
that means you bought all your properties during the bubble...
even if you got a good deal on each property? you still have equity to worry about, and unless somebody else paid for them? it's your equity.
you may take cash flow out today, but when you do? it's gone. even if you bought them "below market"? you could only do that because nobody else wanted them, so if you aren't putting equity back in? nobody will ever want them anymore than you did... and if you are taking equity for yourself? then you aren't putting it back in...
-------------------- Don't envy the happiness of those who live in a fool's paradise. Posts: 36378 | From: USA | Registered: Sep 2003
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quote:Originally posted by Propertymanager: Had the free market been allowed to work, the bubble would never have occurred. Even after it did, if the free market were allowed to work, the offending companies would have failed; the investors would have lost every penny; and a powerful moral message would have been sent that these risky business practices result in failure.
Would that the market actually worked, you would have neither Bic razors nor ... nuclear power.
The "throw-away" economy is based entirely on (a) ignoring the cradle-to-grave cost of a given product/system (b) institutional subsidies for programs that most benefit the elite.
quote:even if you got a good deal on each property? you still have equity to worry about, and unless somebody else paid for them? it's your equity
Actually, I NEVER worry about the equity. I don't have any plans to ever sell the property and over the long term, the property will probably appreciate anyway.
quote:you may take cash flow out today, but when you do? it's gone.
Are you sure that you're in business? Cash flow is the money left over each month after the expenses and debt are paid. In the rental property business, the cash flow is determined by subtracting the operating expenses and debt payment from the rent. I do spend some of the cash flow each month: to eat, for personal bills, to make the house payment; to go camping, etc. Contrary to your claim, there will be more next month!
The same thing is true in your business. If you're making money, then you too should have positive cash flow and that should occur every month. Seriously, you might want to take a basic business course. These concepts are the most basic components of every business.
Posts: 1577 | From: Ohio | Registered: Oct 2007
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It must be really bad to be so pitifully stupid that you imagine you understand things you can't and, on top of that, to be uniformly despised, because you are such an arrogant simple minded hateful jerk.
I'd ask someone that would and could know, but PM would only regurgitate some memorized hateful insults he garners via th right-wing propaganda machine and never understand what my question was and, thus, provide me with no information.
Posts: 11304 | From: Fort Worth, Texas | Registered: Mar 2005
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quote:It must be really bad to be so pitifully stupid that you imagine you understand things you can't and, on top of that, to be uniformly despised, because you are such an arrogant simple minded hateful jerk.
I'd ask someone that would and could know, but PM would only regurgitate some memorized hateful insults he garners via th right-wing propaganda machine and never understand what my question was and, thus, provide me with no information.
You truly are the King of GIBBERISH!
Posts: 1577 | From: Ohio | Registered: Oct 2007
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