John Rawls' Stork Scenario and San Francisco's crime rate
How should we compare crime rates in different cities?
From my new column in Taki’s Magazine:
Steve Sailer
September 04, 2024
… I’m planning a book tour trip to the San Francisco Bay Area to promote my anthology Noticing in later October.
Not being 23 or a first-round NFL draft pick, Union Square has recently fallen on my priority list of must-see places to visit in the Bay Area.
So, the issue of comparative crime rates is of interest to me. …
On my second round of my Noticing book tour, I’ll be visiting Chicago on Sept. 26 and 27. Then, most likely, in October I’ll be going to western Florida; the Washington, D.C., area; and the San Francisco Bay Area.
Alternatively, you can think about a city’s crime problem from a Rawlsian Veil-of-Ignorance standpoint: If all I knew is I’d live my whole life in one city, which city would I choose for the stork to drop me off in at random as a baby? …
But that raises the question of whether Rawls’ Stork can change your race. If your parents decided to raise you in Washington rather than in San Francisco, or vice versa, it’s pretty easy to imagine you’d be more or less the same person in both places. Thus, this is a pretty good thought experiment for contemplating the effects of nurture upon you.
But if your parents were different people, wouldn’t you be a different person, a really different person? Especially if your parents’ ancestors had diverged several tens of thousands of years ago during an Out of Africa event?
Read the whole column at Taki’s Magazine.
Pearsall is one tough SOB. Any athlete who plays a predominantly black position is always tough as nails. The brothers don’t want you playing receiver, running back, point guard etc so they don’t make it easy on you.
City is way too large an area to gauge how afraid of homicide one should be. Worst parts of Chicago are really bad, but I’d have to go way out of my way to put myself at risk there.