From Looting to Litter: How Black America Fuels the Tragedy of the Commons

Flopping Aces ^ | 09-09-25 | Vince

[Dilbert San Diego]

Liberals complain about how there are food deserts in many places.

They complain how there are not major chain supermarkets in some neighborhoods in cities.

But the liberals do not acknowledge why companies make business decisions not to locate in certain places.

[bk1000]

There are reasons things were the way they were.

[1Old Pro]

The black community’s disengagement from ordinary acts of civic responsibility is harming America as a whole

Time to finally fix this mess.

[Daveinyork]

I worked in a supermarket in 1967. It was set up so you could not take a shopping cart into the parking lot. You had to bring your car to the curb to unload your cart into your trunk.

[TexasFreeper2009]

yep, liberals want to pretend its about racism. When businesses only care about one color... GREEN!

If there are no businesses where they are needed, there is a reason that involves the color GREEN.

[Leaning Right]

LBJ’s Great Society destroyed the black family unit.

Trump wants to bring industry back to America. That will help everyone, including urban blacks. Good jobs bring stability.

So of course the Democrats are against that. “Free trade” Republicans are, too.

[Leaning Right]

Some stores in my neck of the woods have attached long poles to their shopping carts. So the carts can’t clear the door.

Quite an inconvenience for senior citizens. But I can’t blame the stores. You gotta do what you gotta do.

[foundedonpurpose]

Am leaving St Louis for a reason.

[No name given]

True.

[No name given]

Agreed.

[al baby]

Just do a wheelie and your out biggest waste of money ever those failed everywhere

[pierrem15]

In the big city where I live I see two varieties of swine who fail to return shopping carts: i) blacks in black areas; ii) high-end area Whole Foods.

To put it bluntly, our society is being looted from both the top and the bottom: most visibly, poor blacks in big cities, and less visibly our corrupt and entitled managerial class.

The latter outsources, hires illegals, H1Bs, etc., and does the "pump and dump" to loot publicly traded companies to get bonuses and cash in stock options based on quarterly profits, decisions that ultimately destroy the company.

Both do immense harm, but the second probably more so.

[AppyPappy]

People should live where the crime isn’t. Let the criminals play with each other.

[Leaning Right]

> Just do a wheelie… <

Ha, good point. I suppose those carts only work for those folks who wouldn’t steal them in the first place.

[pierrem15]

One store near me has installed European-style coin chains: the carts are lined up but chained together. You have to put a quarter in to get the chain released and reattach the chain to get the quarter back.

PITA to always remember to bring a coin but it's effective.

[lastchance]

The author is wrong to paint the entire “black community” with one brush. The apathy towards crime he points out can be found in most low income, low education,urban centers plagued by absent fathers and easy availability of drugs and alcohol. It doesn’t help that the homeless are more likely to congregate to such areas since their presence will be better tolerated by the officials and residents.

What is alarming is the attitude that law abiding blacks who live in such places need to just put up with the people and conditions that let crime flourish. Often because they are told to bring attention to the problems is racist. Combine that with do-gooder officials whose policies down right encourage absent fathers, poor schooling, more homeless, and worst of all more crime and you get just what we see now.

However the non-criminals do need to realize that things like food deserts, lack of amenities, petty crimes, urban decay, and bad schools are indeed a result (in part) of them tolerating such for too long. Instead I believe many will harp at the government to fix things. But as I stated above this is not just seen in “black communities.”

[Senator_Blutarski]

This has always been about behavior rather than race.

[Leaning Right]

> To put it bluntly, our society is being looted from both the top and the bottom <

I forget who first said it: Only the middle class plays by the rules.

[marktwain]

The author is wrong to paint the entire “black community” with one brush. The apathy towards crime he points out can be found in most low income, low education,urban centers plagued by absent fathers and easy availability of drugs and alcohol. It doesn’t help that the homeless are more likely to congregate to such areas since their presence will be better tolerated by the officials and residents.

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You are correct, but their are other problems with the narrative as well. I covered a story in a black neighborhood in Milwaukee. The homes were neat and well cared for. I did not see litter or shopping carts. I talked to a police officer who was there. He said “no problem being here in the day, but he would not take the chance of being there after dark”, which he meant, being there after dark when he was not on duty.