Those who grew-up in poor neighborhoods are generally more prone to crime
whether falling victim or becoming involved in one, such as being recruited
to gangs or exploited to sex works and other survival jobs that are at the
margins of society.
Incarceration cost
for each inmate per year is more expensive than a post-secondary education
without counting the criminal justice and legal cost. A
40% drop
in crime was seen in area of Namibia with basic income and property crime
decreased in
Dauphin, Manitoba during the Mincome
experiment.
As more people are displaced by COVID-19, increased rates of break-ins were
reported. People were already on the edge with reports of guns being pulled
at grocery stores. People who are on the edge of breakdown will likely be
the first one to go. And sometimes they take out large numbers of people
with them through mass suicide or domestic abuses and mass murder. Even
before COVID-19, as we walk down the poor neighborhoods, where politicians
normally avoid visiting during election campaign periods, we can hear
people talk about there being lots of “broken people” in their area.
Poverty and trauma are a closed interlinked loop that only feeds a vicious
cycle. They are the main precursor of social ills. One could lead to the
other. Homeless shelter organizations are well aware that the first thing
that goes when you fall into poverty, or simply faced with pending economic
insecurity, is your mental health. Meanwhile, those who suffers from
trauma, whether due to abuses or other causes, could cause them to become
less productive members of society and put them at higher risk of falling
into poverty. Substance abuse and harmful addictions usually results from
mental health issues whether it is caused by income insecurity or other
traumatic causes. As COVID-19 pandemic unfolds, the already bad trend of
drug abuses and gang
problems just escalated
.
A militarized police more focused on use-of-force has been proven to be a
poor fit for dealing with the increasing societal mental health crisis,
with warning signs going as far back as 1997. That year in Toronto, a
schizophrenia victim named
Edmond Yu was shot dead
by police in the Toronto’s public transit. This propels a movement to raise
awareness about the worsening effect of homelessness on mental health
issue, and inadequacy of policing in dealing with mental health crisis. A
look back at Edmond Yu’s life revealed his favorite song was the Beatle’s
“Yesterday”, offering a window to his struggle with regrets and longing for
better times where he was on a
path towards his study in medicine
. Sammy Yatim would become another victim in 2013, and once again the
findings would
recommend de-escalation
as a needed part of response to a mental health crisis. And this year
Toronto saw another case in the middle of the pandemic as family of Regis
Korchinski-Paquet
questioned police’s aggressive action
that lead to her fall to death from her apartment’s balcony.
Edmond Yu
People with their stereotypes would sometimes point to indigenous
populations who have a large portion of population in poverty. As with
other poorer neighborhoods, addictions are rampant. But there is sometimes
a general dismissiveness and blaming that it is “fault of their own” or the
growing missing indigenous women that they are at risk due to “their
choices”. Any mention of abuses in residential schools, 1960s scoop, and
continued family breakup with the current foster child system, are
downplayed and indigenous people who are struggling are told to get over it
(and any past transgressions). The truth is for a lot of indigenous
families, the trauma from residential school abuses and deaths are still
fresh in their minds. Trauma and ensuing alcoholism tends to pass down
generations. Imagine one person as a victim of abuse and being traumatized
and the consequences of that. But multiply that to a whole generation of
indigenous people who are now the parents or grandparents of the indigenous
youth nowadays. A lot of their youth are still being separated from their
family through child welfare and foster care homes. In Canada, 52 percent
of children in foster care homes are indigenous children. So the same
separation from their culture and family is still ongoing at this time.
Rather than tackle the generational trauma they are envied about their
isolated reserve land or tax free status like it is enriching them when the
opposite is true. They would rather be integrated to the same health care
and system enjoyed by other Canadians. The reserve land or tax free status
as reparation aside, there is no reason to exclude them from other basic
health care and human rights enjoyed by other Canadians.
Young indigenous women are often victimized into child prostitution and
crime, the perpetrator emboldened, knowing that when the victims are
indigenous, people tend to overlook and shrug their shoulder as if it is a
“fault of their own”. The
stacked multi-generational trauma
is just their problem to sort out and to “get over it” and they are
undeserving of any support. Some enviously criticize their tax-free status
as a windfall despite reality of the Indian act relegating them to isolated
reserves that are not conducive to supporting economic growth or personal
survival.
Recovery from invisible mental injury takes time. But in the absence of a
secure home or hostile environment (such as continued abused or bullying
due to social awkwardness resulting from past abuses), then the injuries
just pile up until a breaking point is reached, tantamount to a fatal
physical injury. While our society advances, science and health workers are
learning more about effective means to deal with invisible brain injuries
or handicap. For instance, an autistic kid under the old school attitude of
“spare the rod, spoil a child”. It is an old way of thinking that violence
makes a person stronger. Scientific studies now show that would have done
irreparable damage to kids instead of helping them. An autistic kid acting
up and being seen as evil to be cast to hell might sound like dark age era
punishment, but to this day those with mental illness or autism or
Asperger syndrome are tasered or shot at.
But research now shows gentle treatment and reminders that helps regulate
kids in those spectrum. Parents can get their kids to special class that
help them without use of violence. Kids are shown to calm down and learn to
regulate themselves.
As relief funds for COVD-19 were announced, some politicians claim they
support the relief because it is for the people who have fallen on hard
times due to “no faults of their own”, while leaving out those who have
long been struggling. Assumptions are often made that the destitute
troubles are “faults of their own”, making it easier to dismiss any
feelings of empathy towards them.
A large part of the reason for addiction and social ills are caused by
income insecurity and poverty. Contrary to stereotypes that people became
poor because they are lazy and engage in addictions when the reverse is
true (people become addicts due to mental problems resulting from being
impoverished or past abuses). Or the root cause could be due to other
causal factor or trauma.
An asterisk should be added to the poverty trauma link, as precursor of
social ill, is ingrained inequality and biases in the system, which causes
females or people of colors being treated less in salary or standing in
society. This in turn creates a trap that adds a layer of obstacle for the
affected group to advance.
Another common prejudice is generalizing poor as people with low IQ. A lot
of poor people go on to excel after overcoming obstacles that people with
secure income do not normally have to go through. Someone facing the
prospect of losing their income security, or someone who is
suffering from trauma
, could see their IQ negatively affected. Those who are abused or who had
suffered other forms of trauma usually develop a cocktail of disorders from
mild panic disorder or anxieties to obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD),
attention deficit hyperactive disorder (ADHD), post-traumatic stress
disorder (PTSD), total breakdown or psychotic disorder. People trapped in
such mental states are also more likely to be constantly in a fight or
flight overdrive leading to mistrust and leads to long-term chronic
physiological illness or disease. Some might just become irritated while
others could become abusive or violent as their mental state comes loose.
But those who overcome and are able to recover after a while and stay away
from a tumultuous environment have seen their IQ recover, as was the case
with Alberta’s eugenics sterilization victim and an abused sufferer
Leilani Muir.
As an aside but noteworthy nonetheless: the link above to a study on
childhood trauma and IQ defect have found that for people with psychotic
disorder, that is not caused by trauma, their IQ or cognitive ability were
less affected. Other study also found that IQ is not a predetermining
factor for prejudice.
Both “intelligent” and non-intelligent
people could both be prejudiced. They are more likely to engage in social
Darwinism that predates Darwin’s actual scientific theory. Unlike Darwin’s
theory, social Darwinism is based on prejudice than science. Social
Darwinists use scientific theory of genetic survival of the fittest as an
excuse for apathy and outright oppressive actions against specific groups.
Similar to people from abusive environment, bullied kids are more likely to
underperform. But removed from the hostile environment they could recover
and excel. The government welfare system and its past and present system of
treating kids from indigenous homes essentially took on the role of the
bully by constantly harassing people who are dealing with trauma, compounding the
problem than helping them recover.
We tend to minimize any case of abuses that are brought to light. A lot of
times the victims are instead blamed and discredited. Our brains as
described by Daniel Kahneman and Amos Tversky are risk averse. We have a
hard time accepting an uncomfortable truth and will tend towards
minimizing and rationalizing it out.
This leads to victim blaming that even some victims of domestic abuse
themselves resort to.
Removing or mitigating the root cause of trauma, whether it is income
insecurity or mental distress (such as lost loved ones, calamities,
bullying and abuses), could lead to positive improvement in their IQ.
Basic income will help heal the wound in our social fabric. It will ease
recovery and rehabilitation from trauma, no matter what the origin, source
or the form it is in. Those recovering from trauma due to systemic
injustices or from personal tragedy have a steep hill to climb even before
the added burden of facing the threat of income insecurity. Healing takes
time and basic income gives them time and income support to recover.
Basic income also allows victims of abuse to remove themselves from the
abusive environment without fear of losing their means of survival, or a
roof over their heads and ending up on the streets. With Universal Basic
Income (UBI), a fund for basic survival is available to them anytime. But
if the basic income system is non-universal such as NIT, then the system
needs to be able to respond quickly, without intrusive interrogators that
could make those who are thinking of running away think twice. The system
must be easily accessible and responsive. The rule must be clear and make
people trust it and be comfortable that they will not get turned down or be
stigmatized as they seek urgent help.
Conspiracy theory often spikes when people are anxious. Disinformation,
whether from foreign instigators or local pranksters, spreads farther and
wider when people are anxious, whether it is due to pandemic or economic
insecurity. People become paranoid and mistrustful of government or large
organizations. This in turn leads to the rise of false savior populist
leaders. When society is anxious, voice of reason and rational thoughts are
drowned out by voices of fear and hate. Science and fact give way to
paranoid xenophobic fascism and protectionism.
The Mincome experiment analyzed by Manitoba economist Evelyn Forget
indicates there were
fewer hospital visits
and mental health issues, along with reduced domestic abuses, accidents
or injuries. Although the experiment was short-lived, it reduced
hospitalization rate by 8.5% while the experiment was running.
One example of the effect of losing, or simply threat of losing, one’s
income on a person’s mental state are those protesting to force reopening
in the midst of a COVID-19 pandemic. When interviewed by reporters, they
expressed feeling threatened by the possibility of losing their jobs or
incomes from their business. People in survival mode are less likely to
think of bigger picture and greater good. But with basic income, people
can have what Roosevelt refers to as freedom from want or fear, and start
to thrive and have a sense of belonging to the community or society.
Whether still in the midst or after the pandemic, there will likely be a
huge hangover economically and socially — including psychologically, leads
to mental health issues and despair. If we don’t pre-empt it with basic
income, the cost of trying to recover or treat the outbreak of
socio-economic turmoil will be much costlier and exact longer term cost —
in some cases permanent damage to individuals and businesses. Whether it is
the current pandemic, or future crisis and the cleanup and recovery
post-crisis, basic income would go a long way to calm our collective
nerves.