I agree with Tom Blumer’s assertions, but let’s get some facts straight: you cannot compare the crime rates of a nation even during wartime with that of a city that is comprised mostly of welfare recipients. Cities, even nice liveable ones like San Francisco, always have higher per capita crime rates than an entire country. The murder rate for the US, for example, is 6.6 per 100,000 people. The murder rate for Cleveland is 20 per 100,000. However, if you are black, Columbus is more deadlier than Cleveland, according to a 2004 survery. Also, since there are 101 factors that go into anything, one of the reasons why Ohio is losing population (the only state to actually lose population along with Michigan, which I’m surprised Blumer did not mention) is because of the invention of a little appliance called the air conditioner. If you look at states like Texas and Florida, their populations did not begin to swell until after the air conditioner became widely used back in the 1950s. The air conditioner made living in the tropics palpable. Taxes, crime, poor schools are only part of the issue. If poor schools were the biggest issue, then no one would move to Florida, which has the worst public schools system in the country.
