On Sat, 21 Sep 1996, James A. Donald wrote:
At 08:11 PM 9/17/96 -0700, Vladimir Z. Nuri wrote:
but I'm still a bit confused about those prices. what determines them, anyway? risk to the assassin? it seems that it ought to be as easy to snuff out one person as it would another. e.g. everybody walks alone out at night at different times, it seems.
Although government services to the rich and poor cost about the same, the quality is radically different. Thus the risk involved in killing a poor person is vastly less than the risk involved in killing a middle class person.
I think it is more likely an us-vs.-them mentality, rather than the cost of educating the person in question. If someone much poorer than you is killed in a poor neighborhood, you don't feel as threatened - it is one of "them" - If someone of equal or greater socio-economic background suffers a violent death, you begin to think "it could happen to me, too." Now it is a matter of "us." The higher up the scale you go, the more people on the "us" side of the coin, with more money/political clout as well. This increases the demand to apprehend the killer, which increases the risk to the killer, hence, a higher price for a hit on a target in a higher socio-economic position. It is not unusual for the investigation of drug-related murders to be lax; the "tax-paying" majority often says "let them bump each other off." With lax enforcement, lack of public outcry, there's less risk. The price is lower. Now if it is the lawyer that lives just down the street ... Ooops. Bad choice of profession. :) Bad wombat. No biscuit. g'nite, all.