Apparently, in the United States, looting businesses is now ‘cool’. Countless videos document how large groups of people gather to break into stores and shopping centers in broad daylight and take everything in their path in the face of the helplessness of employees and security guards. ‘Smash and grab’ they call it: smash and take it. The issue has transcended the anecdote to become a growing social problem that the US commercial sector has estimated these days at 112 billion dollars. Chains like Target have decided to close the shutters on some establishments because they believe that theft makes the business unsustainable. Even the mayor of New York has proposed a plan to end looting.
Logically, the situation has opened an agitated debate that already has its roots in the ideological terrain. Taking into account that the majority of those carrying out the looting are black, some point an accusing finger at the increase in inequality and the racial gap; But seeing that the businesses attacked are often Apple stores or luxury fashion brands, others affirm that the situation is a consequence of a gradual degradation of civic values and the decline of the West in general, with a youth that has expectations disproportionate and waning capacity for sacrifice.
For this reason, today we put the international focus on this situation that threatens to spread to other countries, also in Europe. Not in vain, in the United Kingdom shoplifting has doubled in the last three years and the newspaper The Guardian also speaks of an epidemic.
These are the two topics we will address today:
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The looting, a “national crisis” ‘made in the USA’.
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The US budget threatens Ukraine.
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Delinquency
The looting, a “national crisis” ‘made in the USA’.
It has just gotten dark in Philadelphia and a group of young people, especially black people, gather in the vicinity of an official Apple establishment and rush in to destroy all the technology devices in a few minutes, before the astonished gaze. of customers, employees and helpless security guards. Something similar happens in pharmacies in New York, luxury shopping centers in Portland and Chicago, and large stores throughout the country.
Most thieves get away with it, but some cases end in tragedy. That of Ta’Kiya Young, in Ohio, is one of them: the Police tried to stop her on August 24 when this pregnant young woman was trying to leave in her car, after the security cameras had revealed her stealing liquor, and one of the agents shot her dead because she did not heed his orders. In April, a store guard in San Francisco shot and killed another robber, Banko Brown. That, in Trump’s opinion, is the right thing to do with looters. He said it last Friday at one of his rallies. «It is very simple to put an end to these lootings: if you rob a store, you can expect to be shot as soon as you leave. “Shoot!” exclaimed the Republican. It is the simple solution that populist leaders often offer to complex problems. In the former president’s opinion, if the problem is not ended with bullets, “the country will die.” The sector calls it a “national crisis” and publications such as the New York Post elevate it to the category of “epidemic.”
The gap that separates the different social classes in the United States has been growing for many years. Specifically, 20% between 1980 and 2016. It is a trend that has worsened with the pandemic: in 2021 inequality between those who have the most and the least grew by 4.9%. Furthermore, in this scenario, black people are the most disadvantaged minority of all, followed closely by Hispanics. While white citizens have a median net wealth of $189,100, blacks stay at $24,100 and Latinos at $36,050. From this arise, for example, initiatives such as those that give priority to black students in universities, a positive discrimination that has been overturned this year by the Supreme Court. In this way, it is not that the social elevator does not work, it is that it takes many to the basement.
“It is easier to call those who steal baby formula or medicine monsters and demand that they be imprisoned than to recognize that our political and economic priorities create conditions in which we can only survive by stealing powdered milk,” said Democrat Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, champion of the woke movement for conservatives. That this social injustice exists and that the current capitalist system drives it is undeniable. But so is the criminal component behind these lootings, which, in general, do not affect establishments where essential items are sold. Even those who steal food from supermarkets often arrive in mid-range or high-end cars, like Ta’Kiya Young. And this also provokes a debate about the decline of traditional values such as effort and the capacity for sacrifice, something that clashes with the high expectations, especially of excessively materialistic youth.
It is not a problem exclusive to the United States, far from it. A few days ago, a middle manager in a construction company once again told me something that I hear more and more often from businessmen from all sectors in Spain: «We lack labor and the problem is serious. The first thing the kids ask is about the schedule, because they no longer want to work on Friday afternoons, and about the salary. “They ask you for 2,000 euros without any experience.”
Are they logical demands, similar to those achieved first by free Sundays and then by the 35-hour work week, that clash with corporate greed? Or is it a decadence caused by the excesses of a welfare state that is heading towards collapse because youth are not aware of their real worth and have become over-accommodated? It is a debate as interesting as it is polarizing, since the left and right make a very different analysis of the problem and, therefore, offer opposing solutions. So far, none of them have worked and the problem is growing.
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Another side of the invasion
The US budget threatens Ukraine
Since Russia launched its invasion in February last year, the United States has sent more than $75 billion worth of aid to Ukraine. Mostly (61%) in the form of weapons. And Congress has approved a total disbursement of $116 billion. Thus, the American superpower is, by far, the country that contributes the most to Ukrainian defense. But that assistance is now in jeopardy.
Firstly, because the budget agreement reached this week to avoid the collapse of the Government excludes an item of military aid to Ukraine. President Joe Biden assured that the flow of weapons will not stop, but the fatigue among a part of the American – and also European – population and the decline in their support for Kiev are more than evident. Especially among Republicans, and especially among Donald Trump followers.
“What we’ve sent is somewhere between ‘more than enough’ and ‘too much,'” said Congressman Matt Gaetz. His co-religionist Marjorie Taylor-Green added that “Ukraine is not our 51st state.” For this reason, next year’s presidential elections may be as relevant for the country of the stars and stripes as for Ukraine. Trump already made it clear in May: “The Democrats are going to send 40 billion more to Ukraine while American parents will not even “They can’t even buy baby milk.” And many emphasize that, unlike what his predecessors did, Trump did not start any war during his term. ‘Make America Great Again’ meant focusing on the domestic and downplaying the international. He also did it in the Pacific, where the only conflict he initiated was with China but over tariffs.
If Trump returns to the White House, something that cannot be ruled out considering that he has no rival in the Republican Party and that the Democrat is headed by a living dead, the policy towards Ukraine could change. As if that were not enough, the admiration he feels for Vladimir Putin and the alleged campaigns orchestrated by Russia to achieve his victory in 2016 is well known. In this way, although they do not think about it too much yet, the future of the Ukrainians will be decided both in the trenches of Donbas as in the polls of the United States. Because we all have strong ideals until we have to pay for them.
Is all for today. I hope I have explained well some of what is happening out there. If you are signed up, you will receive this newsletter every Wednesday in your email. And, if you like it, it will be very helpful if you share it and recommend it to your friends.
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